


Life in Inkopolis Plaza

by Saliod



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Gen, Inkling(s) (Splatoon) - Freeform, Original Character(s), Short Stories, Slice of Life, multiple characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-05 14:02:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 38,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14045835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saliod/pseuds/Saliod
Summary: Inkopolis Square is a bustling active place all different kinds of squid kids. From a confident and skillful team captain to quite squids who would have never talked to anyone. Many stories are told every day in this city, and this book contains a few from different inklings.This story was Transferred from an old account, and I changed the title too.





	1. The First Round

Lex waited at the table for the rest of her team to arrive. She was the captain of team Splat Cloud. This was going to be the first turf war match of the season, and Lex wanted to get the team’s over points up early. She looked at her phone and looked at the time. It ticked to one fifty p.m. She then looked back up to see one of her teammates and friend, Ripley.

  
Ripley was short for his age, being the second oldest on the team. He used the heavy splattling, which he hauled over to Lex. He had green hunter high tops , a hula punk shirt, and a pair of squidfin hook cans. He also had his hair done sideways and had strapped pants.

  
“Just on time,” Lex said to him. Ripley smiled, “you know me Lex, I always want to get my game better.” Lex asked, “did you see the other two on the way here?” “No,” Ripley said, “I didn't.” Lex sighed. “I should have expected, those two are usually late.” “Well, not-” Ripley was cut off by Lex, “Aqua!”

  
Aqua was the oldest and tallest on the team. She had the long side cut, the knitted hat, an annaki dive shirt, a skirt, and arrow pull ons. Her weapon of choice was the Slosher.

  
She waved to the third teammate, and Aqua waved back and approached her and Ripley. “Sorry I'm late,” Aqua said quietly, “I was picking out a headband for my sister. She turns fourteen in a few weeks.” Lex smiled, “ it's okay, you're not usually late like Grey is.” Aqua sat down with her teammates. “Is he still not here?” Aqua asked. “Nope,” Ripley said, “if anything, he is probably getting a drink from Crusty Sean’s.” Lex looked over Ripley’s shoulder. “It seems he at least knows.” Ripley turned around in his seat. “Grey!”

  
“Grey was the youngest in the team. He as the back style hair and the extended pants. He had contacts, a green tee, and neon sea slugs. The weapon he used was the splat roller.

  
He was running to the group. He panted heavily. “Looks like someone tried not to be late,” Ripley teased. Grey looked up at his friend with his grey eyes. “Ha ha, very funny Rip,” he said as he playfully pushed his friend. Lex then interrupted the two boys. “Alright enough you two.” Lex opened her phone. “I hope you have been training, because today we're up against team Splat Bombers.” The group recognized the team instantly. They are Splat Cloud’s biggest rivals, and had made a name for themselves, which they had completely destroyed Lex’s team so many times.

  
“Great, just what we need for our placement matches for the season.” Rip said irritated. “Actually Rip, the team has changed quite a bit,” Lex said looking at her phone. “Gil is still the captain, so expect to be rushed down by him. Then there is Duncan, who had rejoined the team. Last time I recall, he used the blaster, so be cautious while advancing around corners. Next is Honey. All I know is that she uses a firefin charger. She will probably be looking after Gil while he rushes us down, don't let your guard down. Then there is Fira. I have never heard of her before, and it seems that she sneaks up on her enemies rather than facing them straight on.”

  
Ripley finished sipping his drink, “you're right, the team has changed.” “I wonder what happened to Kim.” Aqua thought aloud. “Who knows,” Lex said, “but what’s important is that we don't fall for their traps. Now, are we ready to win this battle?” The other three cheered in response. “Then let's do this!” With that, Lex grabbed her Annaki mask and her Splattershot Pro and the team ran to the battle tower.

-

The team entered the tower to find the Splat Bombers were already there. Gil noticed the group run in as he was talking to Duncan. Gil had a confident smile on his face. He wore a striped beanie, a birded corduroy jacket, long pants, and a pair of sunset orca hightops. Duncan next to him seem quite the opposite, looking slightly nervous. The other boy had a patched hat, an orange cardigan, shorts, and a pair of strapping white shoes.

“Ah, if it isn't Lex. How has it been?” Gil asked charmingly. However she didn't fall for his trick. “I told you Gil, stop trying to get me back! I meant what I said!” Gil shrugged, “suit yourself.” “Enough chit chat,” Ripley interrupted, “let's get to splatting, we’ve got a game to win.” “You mean a game to lose,” Honey replied. Honey was a short, and joking girl. She had a sun visor sit atop of her long tentacles. She also wore a lime east stripe shirt, long pants, and orca hi-tops. Ripley stuttered, “sh-shut up!”

  
Grey looked at Duncan, and he looked back at Grey. “No hard feelings?” Duncan asked, “We’ll see how it goes,” Grey replied back.

  
Aqua saw who she assumed who Fira was. The girl on the other team looked irritated at something.She had a scratched up painter's mask, and tentacles that crossed behind her back, making a braid-like fish tail. She also wore a cycling shirt, long elsastic pants, and piranha moccasin shows. Fira saw the shy girl and looked her dead in the eye. Aqua replied with a meep, and turning away from the frightening girl.

  
Lex turned to Gil and looked him in the eyes. “Many the best team win,” Gil said. “Yeah,” Lex replied, “we’ll see who’s the best.”

-

“Hey everyone! It’s Pearl and Marina comin’ at cha’ with the first match of the season!” Pearl said energetically. “Today match will be against Team Splat Cloud and Splat Bombers at Starfish Mainstage!” Marina said.

  
“Hey Marina, who do you think’s gonna win?”

  
“I’m not sure, Splat Cloud has shown in previous seasons to have a very strong offense mid game to create amazing comebacks, but team Splat Bombers is good at pressure if the enemy into making the wrong choice, and even camping the other team in their spawn.” “Yo Marina,” Pearl said to her friend, “I’m gonna bet that Splat Bombers are gonna win.” Marina replied back, “alright, but the loser has to buy the winner a drink of their choice.” Pearl jumped from her seat, “oh you're on!”

  
“This battle will be a simple game of turf war, who ever covers the most ground will win! And it seems that the match is about to begin!” Pearl said.  
The two teams appeared from their spawns, waiting to for the timer to start.

  
“Ready…”

  
“Go!”

The teams were off. Lex quickly gave commands to them. “Aqua, Ripley, you take care of covering our spawn area to build up specials. Grey, you and me will head to the center, but watch out for anyone trying to flank.” They all nodded and to get to work.

  
Grey went up the snap incline leading to the center stage of the map. He could see that Fira was just getting onto the stage and was covering it up with her .52 Gal. He tossed a curling bomb up the stage ramp and swam behind the trail it made. Fira’s back was to him. _“I’ve got you right where I want ya.”_ Grey thought to himself. He jumped out of the ink a brought the roller up to flick at her. However, she was able to dodge it, since Grey took too long to swing. Grey then panic once he landed on the ground. He desperately looked in the opposing ink color, until, she appeared behind him. He had no way to escape, and waited to be splatted, but, Fira was splatted first.

Grey looked around to see Lex, who had shot her from a distance. “What did I tell you about going to take someone out alone without an escape route. Grey rubbed the. back of his head. “Hehe, sorry about that.” Lex forgave him, “Don't even get me started on how you should focus more on the ground.” She the went off to the side to cover turf and make sure no one was flanking.

  
Grey continued to cover the stage, until he heard Lex through the earpiece he had. “Aqua, Rip, you ready?”

  
“You beat cha!”

“Mmhm.”

“Then let's do this!”

  
Aqua activated her tentamissles as Ripley prepared his Sting Ray. Aqua locked onto as many as she could, which was only two of them. Ripley focused on another target. Grey knew that what was next, he and Lex would advance forward. He rapidly flicked his roller to cover some ground. Once he was content, he jumped down, but as he did, he was quickly snipped by Honey, who was on the top platform.

  
Grey flew back to the spawn point, where he respawned. Before he continued, he saw someone else coming back to respawn. It was Ripley. “Who got you?” Grey asked. Ripley replied sounding a bit frustrated, “Gil. Came up behind me while I was focused using the stingray.” Grey dove into the ink to get back to battle. “Well don't just stand around, get back out there,” he teased. Ripley gritted his teeth, and swam back to where he was.

  
Grey caught up with Lex, but there was no time to save her before she was splattered by Gil. Grey could hear Lex angrily mumbling to herself as she flew back to spawn. Grey stood there star struck, he never heard Lex get that mad for getting splatter. Aqua then jumped down to cover the turf Gil had made while he was behinds the rest of the team. She looked over to her teammate, “come on Grey, we don't want to make Lex mad by just standing there.” Grey snapped out of his day dream. “R-right, let's get back to work!”

  
The teams continued to fight back and forth over control of the central stage, until Gil able to take a few of them out, with Honey and Duncan making sure none of them escaped. They were being pushed back quite a bit, and Lex was losing her calmness.

“Ugh! We're never gonna get back at this rate!” No one knew to try and calm her down, but Ripley had an idea. “Then let’s use our assault plan.” Every looked at Ripley like his head was flipped upside down. “But Rip, we’ve never gotten it to work in a real match before,” Aqua said quietly. “We got nothing to lose at this point, let's give it a try.” “Rip’s right Aqua,” we have no other choice, hopefully it will work.” Lex looked at her teammates, her hope returning slightly. “Don't let me down!”

  
With 60 seconds left, Lex, Ripley, and Aqua all began to take the side routes to jump right into the enemy territory. Meanwhile, Grey stayed back as he covered up any last spots. As he he covered everything he could, his tentacles flew brightly. “It's ready,” he said to the other three in the earpiece. With those words, Grey supper jumped over to his team, which were dead center in a skirmish. As he jumped, Aqua flew back to spawn. 20 seconds left.

  
The battle continued, and things began to go against Splat Cloud. Luckily, Grey, while jumping to his team, use his Splat down, and it took out Fira and Gil at the same time. No one saw Grey coming, and the three of the took advantage of the confused Duncan and took him out. “It work!” Grey yelled excitedly. He felt a rush of energy flow through him. “Now’s not the time Grey,” Lex yelled. “We still gotta cover more turf!” Grey nodded, and threw a curling bomb to get to the other half of the map. The final 5 seconds.

  
5…

  
Everyone was frantically covering any last ink.

  
4…

  
Aqua, just charged her tentamissles and pulled them out.

  
3…

  
She locked onto everyone who was just respawning.

  
2…

  
She fired the missiles.

  
1….

  
“STOP BATTLING!”

-

“Time’s up everyone!” Pearl shouted. “That was a very close game,” Marina said. “Especially with that crazy comeback from Splat Cloud!” Pearl replied to her friend. “Yeah, but was it enough for them to pull it back?”

  
“That answer is up to Judd and Lil’ Judd.” The cat thought about it for a minute. Judd leaned over to the smaller cat and whispered into his ear. He cleared his throat, “Meow meow(Team Splat Cloud Wins)!” He held out the flag of the respective team color.

  
“Yes!” Marina cheered. Pearl slid down in her chair, “aw phooey,” she said disappointingly. “If it makes you feel better, you don't have to buy me a drink.” Pearl grumbled back, “but that ruins the purpose…” Marina giggled, “never change Pearl.”

  
Grey, Ripley, and Aqua cheered as Lex stood their star struck. “We… we won? We won!” Lex cheered with the rest of her team as they all celebrated. Gil and the rest of the team walked over to the four of them. Lex noticed them, and turned around to meet the captain. “What a pity, ” Gil said sounding slightly disappointed. “And we almost had it as well.” Lex replied, “hm, even after getting a new team, you still don't understand the importance of never letting your defense down.” Lex smirked, and Gil returned one, “at least I don't lose my temper when things don't go my way.” Lex blushed, and Gil laughed, “you're still the girl I remember, Lex.” Then his team left without a word.  
Lex hid behind the mask she had on and the team couldn't help but laugh. Until Grey took a punch to the face from Lex. They all went silent, until they all laughed at Grey’s misfortune. Even Grey laughed, knowing it was just Lex being Lex.

  
With that, the group went back to their usual spot for a celebratory meal.


	2. Build or Bust

Ripley sat down at the table with his drink. The team have had extensive training that day, and the they decided to relax for the rest of the day. Ripley wanted to meet them there, as he could not practice with them.

  
“...we can combine it with the Bubble Blower, but I would need to get enough cash to begin with,” Lex said to her team. “What kind of plan ya got this time Lex?” She replied, “Grey asked what would be different if I used the Forge Splattershot Pro, so I gave him my opinion on what I thought could work.” Grey finished a sip of his drink and joined in, “I’m actually interested in the new Bubble Blower special they made. It seems like a powerful special.” Ripley took a sip of his drink, then replied, “It’s only on the Forge for now, they’ll probably make Weapons with it soon.” “Hopefully it would be another weapon one of us have,” Aqua added in.

  
Lex pulled out her phone, “Before we keep going on about the bubble blower, I want to check the stage rotation for our next game so we can plan a strategy. The three of them did not wait to long for Lex to find out.

  
“Ok, so for our next game, we are playing Ink Tide, and the stages during that hour are The Reef and Humpback Pump Track. Now, I know that what Beca’s team does is that she will-.”

“Oh carp! I forgot that I had to go pick something up from Sheldon today, I thought it was tommorow,” Ripley interrupted. “What for?” Aqua asked. “Something busted in my Splatling while we were practicing the other day.” Grey replied, “That’s right, you did say that something was wrong with it.” “Yeah,” Ripley said as he got up to leave, “I was able to get the parts, but I don’t have enough to have Sheldon fix it for me.” “Well, good luck with that, I’ll tell you the plan when we meet for the next practice,” Lex said as she waved to her friend. “See you guys soon,” Ripley waved back.

-

The doors to Ammo Knights slid open. Ripley, carrying his heavy splatling saw Sheldon, who was a the counter, trying to tinker with some of the weapons. He looked up to see Ripley. “Ah you're here! The shipment came just this morning.” He jumped down from the stool he was standing on. “Yeah, I got your call.”

“Now just one second,” he said as he looked through all of the boxes of parts he had stacked on a large shelf, each labeled a different weapon, sub, or special. “Here is he,” Sheldon said as he pulled out the box labeled ‘Heavy Splattling’. He searched the box until he found a package of different screws, nuts, bolts, and other small pieces. “Here you go,” Sheldon said as he handed the box to Ripley. Ripley in return, gave Sheldon the cash he had for the pieces. “Thanks.”

  
“Hey, do you mind if I go to the practice range and try to fix this thing?” Ripley asked. “As long as no one else is down there,” Sheldon said as he went back to work. Ripley went downstairs, carrying his Splattling down with him. Once he got down, he looked through the window to see if anyone was in the practice range. _“Everything seems ok.”_ He thought to himself. Ripley opened the door to sit down and begin working on the problem.

  
Ripley was far from a tinkerer. He knew next to nothing about how his Splattling even worked. So, he thought it would be best to look up on his phone how to fix it. He turned his phone on, but to his dismay, he only had ten percent left. “I knew I should have charged it last night,” he said quietly to himself. He tried to use the last of his data to find out what he needed to do. The problem was that Ripley was slow when he had to learn things by reading about them. He was more hands on. He was only able to take out the broken piece, but he needed to clean it out, and add more parts to it, but his phone battery died. _“Great,”_ Ripley thought sarcastically to himself. _“What am I gonna do now?”_  
He tried to see if there was anything that he knew, and looked at the splatting. Then, he heard the door open. He looked up to see who it was. It was Beca, captain of team Ink Tide. Her strategies were always different. Every battle is a new and insane plan. Recently, she has become more consistent in her plans, but they are still a bit random.  
“Oh, sorry I didn’t see you there,” Beca said when she noticed Ripley on the sitting on the ground. Ripley glared at her. “I’ll move to the other side of the room,” she said. She then moved to the other side, with her Krak-on Splat Roller on her shoulder. Ripley just looked back down at his splattling and went back to work.

  
Ripley had to figure out what to do now. He could hear Beca practicing by splatting the dummies. _“Wish I could listen to my music.”_ he thought himself. He continued to work from what he could. At one point, he thought he fixed it, but it bursted, which damaged it even more. Out of frustration, Ripley threw the tools he had on the ground as hard as he possible could. He sat back down, looking at the splattling on what to do.

  
As Ripley sulked, a pair of feet walked up to him. He looked up to see Beca again. “You need help, don’t you?” Ripley put his head back down, “No, I can do it myself.” Beca then sat down across from Ripley. “You need help, I heard you throw your tools and grunt, trust me, I can fix it for you.” Ripley knew he had no choice. He was going to ask why Beca was helping him, but he remembered what Lex had told him when they first met. “We may have been on the opposite team, but I appreciate the skill of others that truly deserve.”

  
Ripley sighed, “Alright fine,” he said, still a bit upset. “Do you even know how to fix a Heavy Splattling? You use the Krak-on Splat Roller.” Beca smirked, “My sister Stephanie uses the Heavy Splattling as well.” Beca turned the weapon to herself to see the damage. Se inspected the obviously damaged part of the splattling. “It seems that the tube that connects the the barrel of the weapon.” Ripley looked confused at Beca. Beca glared back, “It means that the ink is slightly leaking before you can fire.” Beca continue to work and fix what she could, while Ripley introduced herself.

  
asked questions about herself. “So you have a sister that also plays turf war?” “Yeah,” she replied, “but not too often. She actual wants to study history more. I also have a younger brother, Henry. He can’t play turf war yet.” Ripley then asked another question, “Why the Krak-on?” Beca answered back, “I use to play the roller, and I wanted to try the baller special, and it just happened to work out.”

  
Then, a loud snap sound came from the splattling. “Is that bad?” Ripley asked. “Nope, that ‘snap’ means your weapon is fixed!” Ripley was confused, “R-really? That fast?” “Yep, and I don’t charge a thing for my services.” Ripley picked up the splattling, and charged it up. It fired into the dummy and popped it. “Huh, it’s as if it was brand new!” Ripley exclaimed happily. “How do I thank you!” Beca smiled, “A simple thanks is fine enough.” Beca picked up her roller. “Well, I’m going to head out, see you in our next game Ripley!”

  
With that, Beca left the room and went back upstairs. She thanked Sheldon for letting use the practice field.  
Before she could get far from the shop, she heard Ripley. “Hey!” He was running up to her. “Do.. do you wanna hang out? At Crusty Sean's next Saturday?” Beca was surprised by the sudden request. “O-oh, umm, sure. I got nothing planned that day.” Ripley smiled, “awesome!” Beca smiled back, “see you the Ripley!” Be a then walked off again. Ripley gave a small smile. He didn't realize, but he was also blushing.

  
“Hey!” Sheldon yelled, “take your stuff out of here or in putting it up on the self for purchase.” Ripley turned around, “whoops. Sorry ‘bout that.” Ripley ran back inside Ammo Knights to get his things. He was still think about Beca, and that he got himself a date.


	3. Lookin' Fresh

*A few weeks ago…*

 

 

Gil was looking over his team's schedule. The new season of these turf wars was going to start in a few days, and he wanted to see what map they needed to focus on.  
While checking his phone, Duncan came up to hi. Gil noticed and put his phone down to greet him. “Duncan, what d’ya need?” Duncan did not question his friends choice of word. Gil would slur his words only around his team. When he use to hang out with Lex, he never mixed his words together.

  
“Well, remember when you told us to hold onto your hat?” “Yeah, what ‘bout it?” Well, it fell of the bridge.” Gil was silent for a moment. “Are.. are you mad?” Duncan asked hesitantly. Gil took a second to reply, “oh, no. No no no I’m good. I’ll just have ta… buy a new hat.” Gil walked away as he talked, but Duncan knew better than to follow. Gil walked into a small alley. After a few seconds, Duncan heard a trash can get hit. It last for a few seconds, then Honey came over.

  
“How’s he taking it?” she asked.

  
“See for yourself.”

  
Honey then heard the trash can for herself. After about a minute, Gil came back from the alley. “You okay dude?” Honey asked for herself. Gil tried to keep his smile, but it did not hold up, and he gave a heavy sigh, “I’m sorry. That hat was from my mother before she left. I really valued it ‘cause it was the last thing she ever game me before she divorced my dad.” Duncan looked at Honey, and she looked back at him. The two nodded, as if they read each others minds.

  
“So let’s get you a new hat,” Honey said. “We’ll just go to Headspace, Flow has all of the headgear accessories that you can find.” Gil was hesitant, he did not want to give up something he treasured so dearly. However, he knew that he could hold onto things forever. He knew what happened last year with Lex. “A’right, I could use a new style anyways.”

 

-

 

The door slid opened to the store, as the three teammates walked into the shop. Inside was Flow. Flow was an “odd one” as most describe her. Most inklings either are put off by her odd nature, or embrace it.

  
She greeted her customers, “Welcome dearies! Is there anything in particular you need?” “Thanks Flow, but we are just here to get this knucklehead a new hat,” Honey said as she nudged Gil with her elbow. Flow smiled, “well, do you have anything in mind darling?” “well…” Gil thought for a moment, then he remembered something. “I was reading through your catalog and I saw a hat I liked. I think it was called the striped beanie?” “Ah yes, I know what you mean,” Flow said. “Wait here friend,” she said as she went into the back room to find the striped beanie.

  
The three inklings waited in the store, they talked about what they planned to do once summer started and what the league schedule.  
“So who are we up against first in the league?” Honey asked. Gil pulled out his phone. “Well, from what I checked, we are up against team Splash Cloud.” “Really?” Duncan asked surprised. “Well, Lex does have a new member on her team. Grey.” Honey commented back, “Never heard of the kid.” “Neither did I,”Gil replied. Before the team could start talking strategy, Flow came back with the beanie.

  
“Ok dearie, try this on,” she said as she handed the hat to Gil. The inkling attempted to put the hat on, but it was too small that when he was able to get it on, the hat gave him a headache. “I think it’s a little too small,” Honey said jokingly. “Ya think?” Gil replied back as he took the hat off. “Hmm,” Flow said a sounding concerned, “let me see if I have a larger size.” She took the small beanie back, then came back later.

  
“I’m sorry dearie, but I do not have any larger striped beanies. I checked my shipment schedules, and I won’t be getting any for at least a month.” “A month!?” the trio said in unison. “How come?” Duncan asked. “Well,” Flow began, “There is not a high demand for it, and Splash Mob isn’t making them as much.” They three inklings gave a heavy sigh. “We tried,” Duncan said to his friend. “I guess we’ll just have to wait,” Honey said. “Thanks Flow, she said as they began to leave the store. “Bye sweeties. Once the door closed, Flow noticed something out of the corner of the eye come through t door to the back room. “Craymond! I completely forgot I left you in there!” 

 

-

 

The three inklings were at their hangout spot, the skate area behind Ye Olde Cloth Shoppe. This time, they met up with Fira, Their new team member. “So now what?” Duncan asked his friend. “ I’m not sure, anyone got any ideas. Honey first suggested, “Well, I’m checking Splash Mob’s website right now.” Fira was about to say something, until Gil interrupted her, “Why didn’t I think of that, of course their own web site would have it.” Instead of trying to say what she wanted, she simply scoffed and turned away.

  
Honey was looking on her phone, “I found it,” she said excitedly, but then quickly lost her excitement as fast as she got it. “And they are sold out in sizes larger than a medium. Gil was about to shout, but was able to hold it in. He sighed in disappointment, “damn,” he sighed, “the old hat I had was a large.”

  
“So now what?” Duncan asked again. Fira wa about to recommend an Idea, until Gil interrupted her again. “Maybe we can find someone else who has the beanie and order it from Murch.” Honey commented back, “But if they don’t have your size online, how can Murch get them.”

  
“How do ya even know how he gets that gear?”

  
“No, but I can guess.”

  
Fira seemed to give up on trying to say what she wanted and pulled out her phone. Duncan had an idea, “What if we order you one off of-” he was quickly cut off by Gil, “No, that won’t work, stuff they sell on that site costs ‘lot more than what it is actually sold for.” Gil sighed, it seemed he would have to find something different. He really did like that striped beanie, but he could not wait a month once the league already started.

  
“I found it,” Fira said in her monotone voice.

  
The other three inklings turned to her and said in unison, “You what!?” Fira replied back, “I found your dinky little hat. Right here on Annie’s app.” Gil was the only one who asked her, “What app?” Fira turned her phone to show Gil. It was there. His size, the exact hat, and it was available. “Remember Annie, the one who owned Cooler Heads? Well she quit that business and made a simple shopping app. The gear is different than the ones usually sold in stores,” Fira explained. “How do you get the gear if you order it through the app?” Gil asked. Fira answered, “she sends the gear to Murch, he will notify me when it’s in.”

  
Gil smiled in glee. “Fira, I knew having you as an ally was a good idea.” FIra smirked back, “Don’t mention it.” After being silent for a moment, Duncan spoke up, “So when will the order be in?” The red eyed inkling responded, “according to the app, Murch should have it in at least three days.

  
“So now what?” Honey asked. The allies looked to their captain for what he had to say. “Well…” Gil thought for a moment. “All we can do now is practice. Everyone got their weapons?” The other three inklings responded by grabbing their weapons were on the ground. Gil smiled, “Then let’s get ink’n!” The team all cheered as they headed to the practice range, ready for this year’s turf war league to begin.


	4. Paint the Town Yellow

*Present day*

 

Beca opened the door to the coffee shop. She immediately saw the rest of her team waiting for her. None of them seemed to notice her walk in, as they continue to chat away. Beca approached her team, her Krak-on Splat Roller in hand. She could hear Ray talking loudly about his new shoes, which they could give him a stealth jump. Before she could surprise her team, Terry noticed her first.

  
“Aye! Beca!” the inkling exclaimed. The other two inklings looked as well to greet their friend. “Sorry I’m late. I thought I had enough time to fix something but before I knew it, it was already 2:30.”

  
Beca was captain of her team, Ink Tide. Her teammates included of Ray, who was underskilled compared to the rest of his team, as he was the lowest rank out of all of them. He used the Tentekat Splattershot, calling it “Old Reliable”. He wore the Safari Hat, the Matcha Down Jacket, and a pair of Moto Boots. Even though he is the lowest rank, Ray takes little games with a pinch of salt.

Terry was the opposite of Ray. While he does take competitive seriously, he would prefer to have fun. He lives to make others laugh. He uses the Sploosh-o-matic and his clothing choices were the tinted shades, the positive long cuffed sweater, and the pro trail boots. He is known for shouting out of nowhere during turf wars, mostly for humor.

Finally was Gabriella. Her weapon of choice Eliter 4k, which many inklings would turn sour at her. She wears a pair of Studio Headphones as she prefers to listen to her music. She also has the navy striped LS shirt and cherry kicks.

  
Beca sat down in the last empty seat and pulled out a map. “Today’s match will take place at The Reef.” She unrolled the map to reveal a bird’s eye view of their battle ground. “So,” Beca began as she pulled out a marker. “I looked over what our best of attack. I will place squid beacons at these three locations. Ray and Terry, if you need to, you will jump to this beacon.” The two nodded. “Gabriella, you can jump to this beacon, I think it will provide a surprise attack on the enemy team. Finally I can jump to this one.” Before Beca could continue, Ray asked, “Who are we up against today?”

  
Beca though for a moment, “I’m not sure, let check.” Beca pulled out her phone. The other three waited in silence, Gabriella taking a sip of her drink. “Okay,” beca then said after search, “it seems we are up against Splat Cloud.” “That means we're gonna need a different approach than our usual one,” Gabriella spoke from out of nowhere. The captain agreed, “this time I want Terry and Ray to go up front.” Ray was confused, “Umm, why aren't you coming along with me this time?” “Because ray,” she replied, “you gotta take some risks to see what works. Besides, Lex’s team isn’t the best at covering flanks.”

  
“Anyway, Me and Gabby will stay back and build ups our specials. I’ll flank with my baller, and your rain cloud will push them back, hopefully.” The captain continued her rambling, “The beacons will still be in the same spot. If we get pushed back to our base, I want me and Terry to jump to the beacons. Are we good to go?” Terry and Gabriella nodded, but Ray wasn’t so sure.

  
“I’m still not sure about this plan,” he said concerned, “what if the destroy all the beacons, or catch us flanking.” Beca smiled, “Sometimes Ray, yah gotta take a risk to get a reward.” Ray didn’t like the idea, but he knew that he could not sway Beca.

 

- 

 

The four team members waited in the battle tower. Splat Cloud was late again. While they waited, the team members looked on their phones or thought of what else to do in the match. “Does Lex have any new team members?” Terry asked. Beca respond. “I think she has some new kid named Grey. I didn’t see anything else about him.” Terry asked back, “Does she know about our new members?”

  
Before Beca could answered, Lex and her team ran into the tower. The four of them were painting as Beca and her team walked up to greet them. “Late again Lex,” Beca teased. “Well,” Lex said in between breaths. “Someone,” obviously referring to Grey, “thought he had time to sleep in.” Grey gave a light chuckle as Lex punched him in the arm.

  
The four inklings of Splat Cloud stood up, readying themselves. Before Beca could challenge them, her teammate interrupted her. “Who’s ready for pain time!?” Terry shouted, seemingly out of nowhere. Everyone jumped at Terry’s yelling. Then, Grey was the first to respond. “Oh I bet you are!” Lex looked at Gabriella, and her Elieter. Gabriella sassily stuck her tongue out at Lex before turning her head away. Aqua looked around until she saw Ray, who was staring at her intensely. Aqua was frightened by the gaze and attempted to hide her face with her slosher. Finally, Beca looked at Ripley. Ripley blushed, and turned his head, and Beca gave a quiet laugh.

“Welcome squid kids to the next round in the Turf League!” Pearl shouted to prepare the battle. Maina followed up her excited friend, “Today’s match will take place at The Reef. It’s Splat Cloud versus Ink Tide.”

  
The two teams appeared at their respective spawn points. “Are the teams ready? Pearl asked over the loudspeaker. A few seconds passed. The inklings could feel the tension in the air, waiting for the signal. The siren went off, signifying that the battle had started.

  
Gabriella shot directly from their spawn so Terry and Ray had a path to swim down. The two inklings trailed down the path, making their way towards the center. Beca stayed back, covering what turf she could since Gabriella wasn’t the best at turf coverage. Before she knew it, Beca had her special, and was ready to go. “Gabby!” she shouted to her teammates, “you ready?” The sniper shouted back, “Just give me a second.” Beca looked to to Terry and ray, and she could see them covering the front area turf.  
Ray was at the bridge, while Terry covered behind him. As their ink covered the ground, Terry checked on Ray. As soon as he did, Grey jumped out from behind the box and splatted the inkling. Terry shouted exaggeratedly, “Oh no Ray! I will avenge you!” If the Ray was still with him, he would have rolled his eyes.

  
“Ok,” Gabriella shouted, “It’s ready!” Beca nodded and went or the right side and near the wall next to the bridge. Meanwhile, Gabby pulled out the ink storm ready to throw it. She watched Beca, waiting for the signal.

  
Beca placed a beacon next to the wall, and used her baller. Gabriella threw the ink storm to release the cloud. It began to rain yellow ink, as the cloud slowly moved across the bridge. Grey was about to splat Terry, but he was able to dodge it. Grey heard his captain yell back to him, “Watch that ink storm Grey!” The young inkling noticed the cloud and he backed off. But before he could fully back off, He heard something behind him. It was a baller.

  
Grey didn’t stand a chance as he was splatted. Beca made a clear path for herself an escape and continued to placing the beacons. “Beca has avenged you Ray!” Terry shouted. Beca simplified smiled and gave a light laugh.

  
Ray respawned, frustrated with himself. “Damn roller,” he muttered in frustration. He pulled out the map tablet to see if the beacons we up and running. Sure enough, all three of them were there flashing. “Good, I can get back into the fight faster.” He tapped the beacon on the screen and switched to his squid form. Ray launched into the air across the stage. He crashed down onto the beacon, shattering it. Beca had just placed it, and she was startled when Ray landed. “Already that fast,” Beca teased at Ray when she saw who landed. Ray took the joke with a pinch of salt and got to work.

  
Back on top of the bridge, Terry and Gabriella were doing their best to hold the area. Terry backed off at Ripley appeared from cover and began to fire at Terry. Terry dived behind a small crate on the bridge, hoping someone would go past and he could splat them. Then, as if on cue, Lex walked past Terry’s hiding spot. Terry popped out when Lex’s back was him. He shouted, “Say goodbye!” However, Lex quickly turned around. It only took three shots to splat the excited inkling. Lex laughed to herself. _“Beca’s a lucky girl,”_ she thought to herself before going back to work.

  
Gabriella tracked Lex’s movement, but she saw the beam and quickly swam away. “Damn,” Gabriella said under her breath. “No swearing in a turf match!” Terry shouted enthusiastically to Gabriella as he swam by. “We gotta keep it E for everyone!” Gabby rolled her eyes and went back to her job.

  
Ripley was trying to reclaim the turf Terry and Gabriella were covering back up. He tossed at sprinkler on top of one of the trees to cover more turf. He went to reload, but he noticed the area around him get dark. He looked up, seeing Beca, but she wasn’t attacking him, just standing over him. Ripley was short for his age, but Beca was only half an inch taller. Beca greeted him, “Hey Rip.” Ripley recognized the friendly greeting. “Hiya,” he replied back.If it wasn’t for the fact that they were dating, he would have instantly splatted her.

  
“So, my first match is against you,” Beca said, “I should have figured.” Ripley smirked, “Yeah, why did it take so long for your team to finally get your placements started?” Beca shrugged. She continued, “So, have you talked to Grey yet about ‘you know what’?” Beca leaned in and gave a devilish grin as Ripley’s faced turned red, knowing what she was talking about. Ripley replied, “Have you talked to Lily about ‘you know what’?” Beca backed away slightly before becoming red herself. The looked at each other in silence for a moment, until the two of the started laughing.

  
As they laughed, neither of them noticed the suction bomb behind Ripley. It bursted splatting the inkling. Ripley’s vision cleared to see Beca had been splatted. He turned around to see Aqua. She jumped when Ripley turned around so sharply. “I-i’m sorry,” she stammered, “I t-thought you were getting a-attacked. I-I didn’t realize you two were-” She was interrupted by her friend. “It’s fine,” Ripley said. He then got closer to Aqua and whispered, “You and I are the only ones that need to know. We talked about this, you can handle it. Ok?” Aqua nodded. “Sorry,” she said meekly. Ripley replied, “It’s fine Aqua, let’s just get back to ink’n.”

  
The battle continued as usual, everyone battled back at each other, until Lex and her team were able to break through Ink Tide’s defenses and were being pushed back to their spawn, Beca tried to place continue to place beacons to flank with, but she was caught every time.  
Beca respawned again pulling out the map to see jump to the beacon again. Then, she saw that her beacon was gone, and a trail of yellow ink lead from where it was. _“Who jumped to the beacon?”_ Beca thought to herself. She knew from the plan that if they were pushed back, her and Terry would flank. With only thirty seconds left, Beca instinctively jumped to Terry who was in the back.

  
Back at the spawn, Ray respawned. He grumbled as he was very close to get extremely frustrated. Gabriella could hear him, “No time to complain Ray, we got a job to do.” “Yeah yeah,” the tilted inkling said. He pulled out the tablet, hoping there was a beacon, or someone was on their way back. Luckily, he saw that Beca was behind Splash Cloud and tapped her icon.

  
Terry and Beca did as much as they could, but they were spotted immediately by Lex. She splatted Terry quickly since the Splattershot Pro out ranged the Sploosh-o-matic. Beca knew she did not stand a chance and tried to swim away, but before she could swim around the corner, the third shot splattered her. Lex cleared up what the two had covered and went back to help her team.

  
Once Lex left, Ray landed. When he landed in the teal ink, he thought for sure he was done for, but he didn’t get splatted. Ray gave off a huge sigh of relief. Before he could relax, he saw that there was only 15 seconds left. He panicked and quickly got to work, covering everything he could.  
Beca respawned. There was only 10 seconds left. Against Splash Cloud, there would be no possible way to even win. All she could do is help Terry, Gabby, ad Ray trade fire with the other inklings. She met up with Gabriella, “Where’s Terry and Ray?” Beca asked the sniper. “Terry took the right flank. As for Ray, I think he super jumped to you after you got splatted. The kid probably got splatted himself the moment he landed. Beca looked at the tablet to see the map. On the opposite side of the map, ir was covered in yellow ink. She then looked up to see Ray using his inkjet, and so did everyone else. Gabriella was the only one to speak, “What the fu-” but she was interrupted by the timer going off.

 

-

 

Everyone waited anxiously as Judd and lil’ Judd were deciding the winners of the round. They turned around. The tension was high. Lil’ Judd held up a little yellow flag.  
Team Ink tide cheered for their victory. Ray received the most praise from his team. The complements did not help his ego however. “I told you Gabriella, Stealth Jump is a good ability,” his said confidently. Gabriella sneered, “Geez, need to make a compliment into a smart as-” “I told you E for everyone!” Terry shouted enthusiastically. The other three inklings jumped when their friend shouted. “I didn’t hear you yell at Ray when he got splatted,” Gabriella said snarkily. “He did?” Gabriella gave up at trying to reason with the two of them. “Team Ink Tide will rise again!” Terry cheered breaking the silence.

  
Beca felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to meet Ripley again. Ripley spoke first, “On behalf of Splash Cloud, I could say that you fought well, and your strategy surprisingly worked.” Beca laughed, “What strategy? Ray just super jumped back to me just before I got splatted. By the way, where’s Lex.” Ripley chuckled, “She was so shocked by Ray that she sat down and Aqua is comforting her.” The two of looked over to see Lex sitting on the ground with her head in her arms. Aqua was giving her a one arm hug. “Ray definitely made her feel bad,” Ripley said. Beca smirked, “I’m surprised you didn’t get as mad as I hear you do.” Ripley blushed. “I bet it’s because of me, isn’t it?” Ripley blushed even harder, his face was as red as a tomato. Beca laughed at her own joke. It was a good thing no one noticed the two teams noticed Beca and Ripley’s banter.

 

-

 

Ink Tide returned to Inkopolis Square, and were exhausted. They knew that match was over, but these were just to see where they would be placed on the bracket. “So,” Ray asked the captain, “who are we up against next?” “Let me check,” Beca said as she pulled out her phone. She scrolled through the schedule until she found her team’s name. “Alrighty,” she began, “The next match will be at Inkblot Art Academy and we are up against…” Beca stopped mid sentence, seeing the team they were up. “Who is it Beca?” Terry asked.

  
Beca stammered, “It.. It’s Team Shark Force.”


	5. The Art of Turf War

Ink tide arrived at early at the battle tower. The choice was made by Beca, and Gabriella was the only one who truly knew why. The team waited for their opponent. Beca was pacing, Ray was looking at a map of Inkblot Art Academy, Gabriella was sitting down, inspecting her E-liter, and Terry went to talk to Beca.

  
“Beca,” he said, much calmer than his usual attitude. The nervous inkling looked at her teammate. “What’s with all the hustle? You’re obviously concerned.” Beca knew that she couldn’t hide the reason behind the actions. She looked around and Ray and Gabriella were both looking at her. She gave a sigh and began, “So I know Shark Force, and they are a team that shouldn’t be take lightly. I’ve been on their team before.” “Who’s on the team?” Ray interjected. Before Beca could answer, Gabby was the one to respond.

“Well, first is Perry, the captain of Shark Force. He uses the Goo Tuber, and he is fierce. You’ll find him every were, so be on your guard.” Gabriella continued, “Then there is the couple, even though they say they are not together, Sarah and Kevin. Sarah is a fast Mini Splattling user, meaning she will probably dodge most of your attacks.

Next is Kevin. Kevin is a little less experienced, but don’t underestimate him. He plays more of a supportive role with the Splattershot Jr..”

  
Beca finished the rest of the team. “The last member who I remember was Kimberly, who is my replacement after I left. I hear she plays the Carbon Roller.”

  
Terry asked another question, “Why did you leave Shark Force?” Beca was hesitant, but she answered, “Because Terry… It wasn’t fun. I felt useless on the team. It was usually Sarah and Perry doing a the splatting and Kevin always covered turf. So I left, and made my own team, and now we’re here.”

  
After Beca’s story, they discussed a possible plan that might work against Perry’s team. Then, during their discussion, Shark Force arrived. Beca stepped towards the team. “Hello Perry,” She greeted coldly. Perry returned with a cold “Hello,” as well. Each of the teams looked at each other in silence, each getting a good look at each other.

  
Perry was taller than most of them there, being 17. He had an urchins cap that hid his spiky hair, a grape hoodie, long pants, and Navy Enperrials. Sarah looked more relaed than anyone there, with a classic straw boater, short tentacles, a vintage check shirt, long pants, and punk cherries. Next was Kevin, who looked anxious, but also serious. He had Half-rim glasses, tentacles in a ponytail, a short knit layer sweater, shorts, and a pair of white normakis. Finally was Kim, who seemed kinda energetic about the whole thing. She had a squash headband, pigtail tentacles, a purple camo shirt, short pants, and neon delta straps.

  
The tension was around them and they simply thought about the other team to themselves. No one said anything, until Terry spoke up. “Hey, Beca, we’re just gonna head on over into the tower.” Beca looked back and her team was leaving to start the battle. “Yeah, we're gonna head in too,” Sarah said to Perry. His team walked past the two captains, leaving Beca and Perry by themselves.

  
“You didn’t have to do it,” Perry said. Beca didn’t change her cold stare, “I made my choice, you can’t get me back Perry. “Fine,” The captain said with a sneer, “but don’t expect me to be so nice any more.” The older inkling walked past Beca and entered the battle tower. ‘When were you?” Beca muttered under her breath. She then followed him along with the other inklings into the tower.

 

-

 

Ink Tide waited patiently in their spawn. No one really spoke. The four inklings simply looked at the center of Inkblot Art Academy, waiting for the timer to start. Beca was becoming more and more tense as she waited. She knew the kind of threat Perry’s team had and he was good at what he does. She could only hope for a miracle to help them even come close to winning.

  
As Beca stood pondering, the signal went of, and the four inklings quickly ran out. “Alright everyone,” Beca said. “Remember the plan, Terry stay back and cover our spawn, and the rest of us get to the center. If we can take control of that, then we can win this.” Terry stayed back, covering what he could, while the other tree quickly made a path to the center tower. Once there, Ray and Beca covered around the ground as fast as they could. Gabriella went to all of the possible areas that Shark Force could flank them and placed ink mines there. She then went to the center tower to take control.

  
“What can you see Gabby?” Beca asked the sniper. “Well,” she began, “I see Kevin in the far back, Sarah is coming down towards us. I don't see Perry or Kim ye-” Gabriella was suddenly interrupted by getting splatted. Beca looked to see what had happened. It was Perry, he took the side flank route. He was smart enough not to pass through to the center yet, as he knew that Gabby placed the ink mine.

  
Before Beca could saw what they should do next, Ray had other plans in mind. “I got him,” he said as he swam to the side of Perry. He jumped down and began to shoot at him. Perry quickly moved to the side of Ray and used his charged up shot to splat Ray.

  
After she saw Ray get splatted, Beca retreated to the opposite side of where Perry was. She placed a beacon behind a small pile of boxes. As she covered the turf around her, she saw an inkling swimming towards her. Beca prepared herself as she saw a cloud forming around the enemy. _“Kevin must have used his ink armor,”_ Beca thought to herself. The inkling jumped out of the orange ink. It was Kim. She quickly tried to flick her carbon roller at Beca, but the captain dodged it in time. She countered with a flick of her roller. She was able to land a direct hit, but it only destroyed the armor. Beca knew she was not going to win this fight, and retreated into the small alley way. Kim threw an auto bomb, and it began to chase after her.

  
Beca was cornered by the wall, the auto bomb, and Kim. She thought to super jump back to spawn, but she had an idea. She knew sometimes, you have to take a risk to earn a reward.

  
Kim was about to splat Beca, but she super jumped into their air. She was told that most inklings will jump back to spawn. Kim turned around, only to find Beca raising her roller to splat her.

  
Beca laughed at her own plan, “I knew that beacon would come in handy.” Unfortunately, she was quickly splatted with her guard down. The culprit was Sarah, and she went back to taking control of the center tower.

  
Beca respawned, she looked over the area to see what was happening. Terry was at the edge of the center, tossing curling bombs. Gabriella was on top of the shell platform. Ray was taking the side flank route. Beca had to decide who to help. Eventually, she chose to help Ray. If he wanted to flank Perry and the others alone, he would be destroyed. However, with her helping him out, the might have a chance.

  
She swam up to Ray, and grabbed his attention before jumping down. “Ray wait!” Beca grabbed Ray by the shoulder and pulled him back. “What?” he said irritated by the sudden rudeness of Beca. She told him, “If you want to flank, you’re gonna need me to help you.” Ray was a little surprised, “You… you actually are going with my plan?” Beca replied quickly, “yes but we don’t have time to waste. How much more charge does your inkjet need?” Ray checked his tablet, “It needs a bit more charge.” Beca thought for a moment on what to do. She had a crazy idea, was only hoping it would work. She used her earpiece to get the rest of the team's attention. “Terry, how much is your splashdown ready?” Terry quickly replied, “It’s ready. Are we doing dive in combo?” “Sort of,” Beca said, “but you know what to do.” Beca spoke again, “Hey Gabby,” keep an eye on Ray for a bit.” “You got it,” Gabby said.

  
Beca turned back to Ray, “The inkjet is ready to go,” he said as his hair lit up. Beca nodded, “then let’s get crackin.”

  
Beca jumped down and used the baller, while Ray swam behind her. Once Beca reached the center, the ball blew up but not splatting any one. Once she did, Ray jumped out of the ink, using his special. Beca used Ray as a distraction to take out anyone she could. She was able to splat Kevin, but as she did, Perry was able to splat her with a suction bomb.

  
Perry noticed that someone was trying to super jump to Beca before she was splatted. Perry tossed a suction bomb next to it and turned his attention back to Ray. Out of the corner of the captain's eye, he saw the inkling jumping towards him. He saw he was preparing something for when he was going to land. It did not take Perry long to realize what that inkling was doing.

  
Terry landed his splash down, he was able to splat Perry just in time. “Feel the pain boy!” Terry shouted after landing the splat down. He was soon splatted however, by Sarah. Then Sarah was splatted by Gabriella, before she could focus her attention on Ray.

  
Beca respawned to see Ray landing on the ground from his inkjet. “Now all we have to do is hold of Perry and the others for the last minute.” Beca swam back to meet up with Ray to defend that position. Once she got there, Beca went to place her squid beacons around the map. One on their lower half, and one in the center. Beca then went to place one hidden on Shark Force’s lower area.

  
When she got there, the ground had not been covered up, so Beca went to paint the ground. Suddenly, Beca was quickly splatted by someone, who turned out to be Kim. Then, from out of a small patch of ink, Perry and Kevin appeared, and they quickly made their attack on the rest of Ink Tide. Ray was quickly splatted by Perry off of the center tower. Terry was almost taken out by Sarah, but she was quickly sniped by Gabriella. The sniper was able to hold her ground throughout most of the match, but she decided to use her special.

  
Gabriella pulled out her case that contained an ink storm. She tossed it into the center, but, as she threw it, Kevin of a people tossed a splat bomb at her, and she was not able to escape it. Without Gabriella to cover her, Terry was easily splatted.

  
Once Beca respawned, she tried to jump to a squid beacon, but once she landed, the timer stopped, and the battle was over.

Lil’ Judd raised an orange flag, Shark Force had won, covering most of the turf. They didn’t really celebrate, but just congratulated each other on a good comeback and team effort.

  
Meanwhile, Ink Tide watched from a distance, not wanting to congratulate the winners. Gabriella sat down, not wanting to talk to anyone, and just sulked to herself. Ray was the most furious. He was farther from the team. Ray was kicking a nearby board, cursing under his breath. Terry was looking around, trying to find their captain, who was simply watching the other team, not making any sign of movement.

  
Beca was thinking to herself. She wondered what exactly it was that truly made her hate Shark Force. Beca already lied to her team to come up with an excuse, but she still was not sure. She liked Sarah and Kevin, but it was Perry. She knew that it was something about him she did not like, but she just was not sure if it was right to say it.  
Then, Beca heard a voice, “You comin’ Captn’?” Terry asked. Beca turned to see the rest of her team. They were all ready to leave, and waiting for her. Beca snapped back to reality. She shook her head to clear it up. “Yeah, I’m coming,” she said, grabbing her roller, and leaving the academy with her team.


	6. When Cross hairs Collide

Honey waited motionless. She was waiting for someone to come down and try to stop her. She was keeping an eye on her team as they crossed the grate to advance into the enemy base.

  
It was the next placement match for Splat Bombers. This time they were up against Ink Tide on Mussleforge Fitness. There were only thirty seconds left in the match, and for Honey, it meant making sure no one flanked her and take control of the center area. She watch Gil dodge an attack from Ray, and splatted him back. She checked on Fira, who was used her baller and was heading into Ink Tide’s base. Duncan was staying a bit further back from Gil, providing support for his friend.

  
With only ten seconds left, everything was going well. Until she instantly got splatted, by seemingly nothing. It was Gabriella was able to make it past the rest of her team and splatted Honey. Behind her, Beca appeared, and the two tried to cover as much ground as they could.

  
Honey respawned, but before she cold even move, the battle had ended.

 

-

 

Splat Bombers walked out of the battle tower. This was their first win of the placement matches and for losing the first two, it was important that they won.  
They were all cheering, except for Honey. Gil was the first to notice the upset inkling. “What’s wrong Hon?” He asked approaching his teammate. “We won are first match, why are ya so glum.” Duncan and Fira noticed Gil and Honey, and approached to see if they were ok.

  
Honey grumbled, before responding to Gil. She was too upset to say it at first, but, she knew she couldn’t hide it. “She got me again,” Honey muttered. The three other inklings knew immediately what she was talking about. Gil sighed, “Honey, you that you can’t keep this grudge going with Gabby.” Honey snapped back, “No, you don’t get how she makes me feel. She’s so annoying.” Fira interrupted, “Are you just mad because she just out ranges you?” Honey snapped back, “N-no. Her personality is super rude and annoying.” “I hate to interupt,” Duncan interjected the conversation, “but she has never been rude to me.” “That still doesn’t change anything for me,” Honey continued, “She’s not rude to you because you don’t know it! I’ll-” “Your face is getting red,” Fira interrupted.

  
Honey felt her face heat up. The four of them stood in silence, as they could hear the music from the battle tower. Honey then broke the silence by saying, “I’ll prove myself. I was able to splat her once, but I’ve got another idea to get revenge on her, I’ll show you!” With that, Honey ran back to her home a to begin preparations.

 

-

 

The next day, Gil was walking down Inkopolis Plaza. He was heading to the Crust Bucket, hoping to get something to eat. On his way, he passed the coffee shop. At first, he paid no mind to it, but then he saw Honey, hiding behind a wall, trying to see through the coffee shop. “Honey,” Gil said. Honey jumped at the sudden voice of Gil. She turned to see him. Honey quickly grabs Gil’s birded corduroy jacket and pulled him into hiding with her.

  
“Hon, what are you doing?” Gil asked. Honey whispered back, still peeking through the window, “I’m waiting for the right moment.” Gil was stilled confused, “I’m sorry wha’?” Honey sighed, “I’m getting back at Gabby by pranking her. This cafe is where Ink Tide meets.”

  
Gil looked through the window, and saw everyone in Ink Tide sitting at a table. Luckily, no one noticed him. Gil then lowered back down into hiding. “And what do ya plan on doin’ to ‘humiliate’ her?” Gil asked the sniper. Honey explained her plan, “Basically, I plan to put a seadragon spice into her coffee.” “Seadragon spice?” Gil echoed, “Isn’t that stuff really spicy?” So spicy it will light your mouth on fire.” Honey sung back, “I’m waiting for them to set the coffee on the counter, before the waiter takes it to them.” Gil still was not sure of her plan. “How do ya know which cup to put it in?” he asked. “Simple,” the prankster replied, “Fira told me the kind of coffee she drinks, Green Sea coffee. It has a strong scent, so it won’t be too hard to know which one it is.”

  
Gil gave a heavy sigh, he cared for his friend, and didn’t want her to be holding onto to something for so long. “Honey,” Gil began. “I know this grudge is meaningless, and you know it too, so I think it would be best if you just drop it now before it gets worse.”

  
Honey glared at her friend. She knew that Gil wanted her to stop, but Honey simply could not shake the hatred towards the inkling sniper. “You couldn’t let go of losing Lex for the longest time.” Gil almost snapped back at Honey, but he remembered when they lost his hat. He took a deep breath, and stood up. “I’m going,” he said, “You can tell me know how it goes.” With that, Gil went back to get something to eat.

  
The sniper went back to work. She thought it was better if Gil left anyway. When she looked back through the window, she saw four cups of coffee on the bar. Honey knew right away whose they were. She looked for the waiter to see if she might have been too late, but luckily enough, she saw him going to the bathroom. Honey snuck through the door, doing her best not to be noticed by Ink Tide.

  
Once she got to the counter, she could already smell the tea. “It’s a stronger scent than I thought,” Honey said in her head. She then pulled out a small jar of Seadragon Spice, and began to figure out which cup was Gabby’s. It did not take her too long to find out. Honey grabbed the first cup and smelled it. _“This is the one!”_ she thought to herself. Honey opened the jar and sprinkled in the spice. She made sure every last flake made it into the cup. Honey then pulled out a pen and began to stir the mixture so Gabby wouldn’t know the spice was in it.

  
Once she was done stirring, she quickly darted back out of the coffee shop, and just in time. The waiter came back out and grabbed the tray of drinks. Honey watched from outside, thinking to herself, “I can’t wait to see the look on her face after she takes one sip.” Honey laughed to herself, but the shushed herself when she saw the waiter giving the four inklings their drinks.

  
Honey watched with anticipation as Gabby began to take a sip from her coffee. Then…  
Nothing happened.

  
Honey was surprised. She didn’t expect nothing to happen. “Did the coffee’s flavor over power the spice?” Before she could figure out an answer, something did happen, but it was not what Honey expected.

Seemingly instantly, Ray ran to the bathroom, without saying anything. “What’s with him?” Beca asked. “Beats me,” Gabby said emotionless, “ I told him to go before we left.”  
Honey was quickly able to figure what happened. Ray must also drink Green Sea coffee. That would explain why the coffee smelled extra strong.  
Before she could see anything else happen, the prankster ran off.

 

-

 

“Do I have to explain what your supposed to do again?” Honey asked, half irritated. Her friend was hesitant to say that he did, but Honey knew he needed an explanation again. She groaned, “Come on Duncan, I can’t keep explaining this. You’re making me feel like a character giving exposition in a movie when you already know what’s going on.

  
“Sorry,” Duncan said, “I’m so confused. Before the league placements started, you were the one to recommend getting him a new hat and move on, but you can’t seem to move on.” Honey sighed and tried to explain to the blaster user, “Duncan, have you ever had a feeling towards someone? A feeling you just couldn’t seem to ignore? And every time you saw or even thought about that person, you would feel that way towards them all the time?” Duncan stuttered for a moment, “W-well, yes?” Honey then replied back, “Then you know exactly how I feel.”

  
“Now,” Honey began, “One last time, then plan is that Gabby is going to be coming through here very soon, and there will be a noticeable bucket above this door. Gabby will notice it, and that’s what we want. The bucket will fall, and this is where you come in. There will be a rope on the ground, and she won’t notice it because of the bucket. Once you hear the bucket fall and hit the ground, then it’s your job to pull the rope. Once we got her, I have a little surprise for her with a few burst bombs for her! And if she notices the rope, she won’t notice the bucket!” Honey laughed at her own plan. Duncan didn’t want to argue with Honey, so he let her be. “Now,” the sniper said, “I will be waiting behind this bush,” she pointed to a nearby shrub. Just be ready when you hear the bucket fall.” Honey went to cover behind the bush. Duncan went to the opposite side, where the rope was waiting. The two inklings waited, patiently for Gabriella to show up.

An hour passed and nothing happened. Duncan popped out of hiding. “Are you sure she’s coming?” “Be patient,” Honey said, slightly irritated, but not at Duncan. The boy didn’t reply, and went back into hiding.

  
Honey was getting more and more impatient. She knew Gabriella came through this building. _"Ugh,”_ she thought to herself when she realized, _“I need more paint for the bucket.”_ The inkling jumped out of the bush quietly, and went to grab the bucket. She had a paint can for the burst bombs, and she brought that with her. _“Can’t believe I forgot about this. That was really stupid of me.”_ She grabbed the bucket and filled it as much as she could. _“Good,”_ she thought satisfyingly to herself. She then went to place the bucket back on top of the door.

  
However, the bucket was much heavier, and Honey was not the tallest inkling of all. She struggled to place it on top of the door. Unfortunately, she lost her balance, and dropped the bucket , and the ink inside spilled all over her. The bucket hit the ground with a thud, and Honey was trying to wipe her eyes to clear the ink out of it. “Damn it,” she said to herself.

While she was concerned with getting the ink off of her, she didn’t realize where she was standing. Honey was then thrusted into the air and flipped upside down. She realized she was hanging by her ankle from the rope.

  
A moment passed before Duncan popped out of hiding to find his friend covered in orange ink, and hanging by the rope. “Yikes,” Duncan said, “Sorry about that.” Honey was not very happy at Duncan, but she couldn’t blame him.

  
Just then, Fira walked past, and noticed Duncan, first, and then realized what was going on. She approached her teammates. “Let me guess,” she said blatantly, “another failed prank.” Honey didn’t reply, instead, Duncan did, “Yeah.”

  
Then, the three inklings noticed someone else approaching. Duncan went to help Honey back on her feet. Gabriella walked up to the three inklings as Honey got to her feet. Gabby smirked, “it seems someone is as bad as pranks as they are at using a charger.” Honey immediately tried to attack Gabriella, but Fira and Duncan held her back. “Let me at that hell of a bitch!” Honey shouted, but her two friends did not let her get close. Gabriella laughed, “You are such a stubborn little squid.” Honey calmed down, and her friends eventually let her go. Once he knew she was okay, Duncan asked Gabby, “How did you know she was trying to prank you?” “Isn’t it obvious?” Gabriella said, “The only person who would want to humiliate me is the inkling that hates my guts the most. And everybody knows she hates me more than anything.” Gabriella turned her back and began to walk away, “you three have fun, I’ll enjoy watching you struggle. Gabby laughed as she walked off.

  
Once Gabby was out of, sight Honey let out a large, disappointed sigh. Fira spoke before anyone else could. “Look Honey, I’m gonna say this as simply as I can. Stop this feud. You can hate her all you want, but that won’t change anything. You can still hate her, but trying to humiliate her is just a bad idea.” “You’re right Fira,” Honey said, “I can’t make any promises to calm down, but I will try.”

  
No one could see it, but Fira smiled under her painters mask. “Good,” she said before walking off.

  
Honey and Duncan stood together in silence for a moment. It was so quiet that Honey forgot Duncan was even there, until he spoke, “so we should probably get you cleaned up.” Honey laughed, “yeah, I should. At least I know now th ‘ink’ for myself.” Duncan chuckled, “that joke isn't even clever.” Honey replied, “but that's what makes it funny.” The two then laughed and joked their way home. They had to practice tomorrow, and they did not want to be late.


	7. Splash Cloud on the Job

“See ya squido!” Crusty Sean said after serving another customer. “Next! Grey! What's Karakin’?” Grey gave a disappointed sigh. “Hey Sean.” “What's wrong kid?” “It’s just,” Grey began, “My mom says I need to get a job, but I can’t seem to find any. Most of the shops in town don't hire at 15. The only one that doesn't is Sheldon, but he wouldn't let me anywhere near his weapons.” Sean replied, “well, you probably know what I'm gonna.” Grey the guessed, “ that you don't need employees?” “You got that right.” The shrimp replied. Grey frowned, knowing that he would disappoint his mother by not getting a job.

  
Sean noticed the inkling’s sadness. He tried to think of anywhere the kid could work, until he remembered… “I may not be able to hire you, but I do know someone who will.” The inkling’s attention was focused for the hope he had. “I heard that someone is looking for kids like ya.” Grey smiled, “where can I find them?” The shrimp replied, “behind the battle tower. Just talk to the guy at the counter.” Grey the ran off and said, “thanks Sean!” Don't mention it squiddo!” He yelled back. “Another customer satisfied.”

 

-

 

Grey approached the small building behind tower. _“This is the place,”_ he thought to himself. He looked at the sign above, “Grizzco. Industries: registration here.” Grey saw that the sign pointed to a counter. And walked over to it. He looked around for anything to show interest in even applying. Until he noticed a buzzer. He pressed it as it made an obnoxious buzz. It startled Grey that it even caused him to jump. A small eye slot then opens up and someone spoke from the other side.

  
“What do you want!?” The person behind the wall asked in a gruff manner. Grey snapped back, “ I'm here to apply for the job.” “The job? Really?” The voiced asked. “Umm, yeah. I need a job, and you guys hire at 15, right?” Grey asked. “Of course we do! Why, why would we not!” The two stood there in silence for a few seconds. “Soooo,” Grey said. The voice the quickly said, “oh! By the way, you wouldn't happen to know anyone else looking for a job, would you? You need at least three other co-workers in order to apply. And did I mention we pay 1000g every 2 hour?” Grey opened his mouth to say ‘no’, but then he remembered that his friends said that they were going to try to find a job as well. The pay was also above minimum wage than other inklings his age. “Actually, I know three inklings that are looking for a job.”

  
“Great!” The voice said gleefully. Suddenly, a clipboard and pen came from a compartment in the wall. The voice then instructed, “ fill out your names here and that should be it.” Grey grabbed the items and filled out him and his teammate’s names. “That should do it.” Grey said. The voice then replied,” now just put that back into the slot.” Grey did so and the compartment closed back up. “ Now just be back here with your friends at 3 later today, and bring your weapons from your battles or whatever you call them.” The slot the slammed shut.

  
Grey gave a silent cheer at his success at finally get a job after looking for so long. _“Wait until I tell the team about this!”_ He thought to himself as he went to find them.

 

-

 

“So why are Bottom Feeders so popular now?,” Lex said as the waited for Grey to show up. Before anyone could respond to Lex, Grey showed up. “Grey!” Ripley called out to their friend. When Grey approached, he apologized, “ sorry I wasn't to practice right away with you guys.” “It’s fine,” Aqua replied calmly.

  
“So,” Ripley said, “Lex told us you were finding a job, did you get one?” “Yes I did,” Grey proudly stated. “And I even was able to get you guys hired there too.” “That's so sweet of you,” Aqua complimented. “Where did you workin’ at?” Lex asked.

  
“Some place called Grizzco. Industries? I think that's what they're called.” Grey looked at his friends to see there wide eyes and looks of shock. “What?” Grey asked. “ Dude? Have you ever been on the internet!?” Ripley asked. Grey replied, “ what are you talking about Rip?” “Grizzco. Is one of the most sketchiest companies known by inklings!” Lex added, “they talk about improving the world, but all they want is money.” Even Aqua agreed, “ there work is very dangerous too.”

  
Grey’s heart sank. But it was mostly for how bad he felt. “I'm… i’m sorry guys.” Lex got up and wrapped her arm around the inkling. “Don't worry about it, we’ll go back when you go for work and you can quit there.” “Yeah,” Rip said, “and we can all go together.” Grey nodded yeah, we’ll do that. The group al nodded. “Work doesn't start ‘till 3 today.” Lex replied, “So let's get some practice in before we have to go!” The team cheered, and Aqua smiled. The team grabbed their weapons and ink tanks and ran of to train more.

 

-

 

It was 2:58. The gang all went up to the little window again and Grey knocked on it. “Excuse me. It's me, Grey. Remember me?From earlier today?” The slot opened and the eyes appeared again. “Ahh,” the voice said, “you came back, and with your friends from earlier I see.” “yes sir,” Grey said. “ However, I decided to quit the job. It was not right for me to give my friends these jobs without their permission, so you can take them off the list too.” The two eyes looked at each other until the voice said that he can’t change anything because he signed the document.

  
“So you’ saying you can't let us leave?!” “ Rip said confused and mad. “Kid, it's for the greater good of Inkopolis! We’re just trying to make the world a better place.” He continued his ramblings, “I see you brought your weapons too, let's get you guys in here and inform you of your job.” Then, the large metal door slowly opened up. No one had anything to say. Lex and Rip were frustrated at Grey. Aqua is usually quiet, and Grey was too upset how he feels that he ruined his friends lives. Grey knew he would make it up to the team, but he wasn’t quite sure what.

  
The door finished opening. With no other choice, the team went into building. It was a strange place, monitors lined the front wall, tacky decorations hung everywhere, a small bench Sat in the middle room. There was a cooler with a wooden animal carving sitting on top of it. A door was in the back of the room, and posters of some kind of creature with slashes across them. Suddenly, the wooden statue spoke, “Take a seat kids.” The group wanted to say something about the statue talking, but before anyone could say anything the statue spoke again. “I’m a radio inside of a bear statue. Just sit down,” he commanded again. “You must get that confusion with others,” Lex said as she sat down.

  
“In fact I do. I am Mr.Grizz. CEO of Grizzco. Industries.” Mr.Grizz introduced himself. “Now, we don't have much time until your boat to the Spawning Grounds leaves. So on the way, read the books to know what you're up against and what you need to do.” Tr inklings saw a two books next to a set of clothes. “Those will be your uniforms,” Mr. Grizz said. He continued, “I also put earpieces to allow me to contact while out on the field.” Lex wanted to ask a question, but Mr.Grizz continued without letting her say a thing.

  
“Now hurry up! We don't have all day!” They then heard a whir sound. It seems the radio turned off. It took a moment, but everyone got up, except Grey. Aqua noticed and went to help her friend. “What's bugging you Grey? Did you forget your wallet again?”!Grey replied, “ no not that. I just… I feel bad for making you guys take this job you didn't want, and now you can't get out of it.” Aqua sat back down next to Grey. “You didn't know. From what you said on the way here, Mr.Grizz pay is pretty good for any job here.” “Ya mean it?” Grey asked. Aqua smiled, “of course. Lex and Rip many not be as excited as you are, but they will come around.” Aqua got back up, “come on, let's get changed and get on the boat.”

 

-

 

Grey slipped into his uniform. It was white long sleeve shirt, with orange, rubber overalls, green rubber gloves, a green matching hat that had packs attached to the side, and green rubber boots. After getting dressed, the team made it onto the boat just as it was leaving. “Alright guys,” Lex said as she held the employee manual. “Lets see what this guy wants us to do.”

  
Lex opened the book up as the others looked around her. “Welcome to Grizzco. Industries,” Lex read aloud, “As a member of this company, it is your job to make the world better place and…” Lex stopped reading, “let's just skip to the part on what our job is.” Lex flipped a few pages and found what she was looking for. “Here!” She said, “Employees are required to gather eggs from salmonids such as chum, fishfry, and cohok.” Images of a salmonid carrying a frying pan labeled chum, tiny salmonid labeled smallfry, and a large one that was called cohok. Lex continued, “but the most importantly, they must collect Gold eggs from boss salmonids(see page 64 for details.)?” Lex flipped to page 64 and found it titled, “Boss Salmonids”.

  
This time, Grey read the book, “Boss Salmonids are different from normal ones. The have special capabilities that normal ones do not. These bosses drop Golden eggs, the source and required item to be payed.”

  
Under the heading displayed images of boss salmonids and markings and descriptions under them. Ripley read the first boss, “Steel Head.” The image showed a large creature that had mad eyes, tires and other junk lining it’s back. It had no legs or arms, just fins. “They charge and lob stink bombs that are very dangerous and can take you down in one hit. This bulky beast can not taken down by shooting it straight on due to its toughscales. However, if you hit the bomb it throws hile it's charging up, this guys is a piece of crab cakes.”

  
Aqua read next, “Steel Eel.” The image showed a long, this mechanical wire with a large metal head at one end, and salmonid controlling it on the other end with a face mask. The ‘Eel’ Seemed to suspended itself in the air by using ink powered jets to hover. “This machine can not be damaged, and if you get hit by it, your done for. The trick is to shoot the pilot of the machine and it should be down real fast. Lex flipped the page.

  
“Scraper,” Grey read. This boss was just a normal salmonid, but it seemed to operate some kind of vehicle that cover most of it up. The description read, “while this boss may not seem like a hard threat to take down, it can still run you over if you're not paying attention. Taking it down is simple. Shoot the vehicle it is surrounded by and it will crash. Then, go behind it and shoot it in the back.”

  
Lex read the next boss salmonid,”Stinger.” This salmonid sat on top of a pile of pots. It also seemed to be covered by armor of some kind. “This bugger is easy to take down, but is a huge threat if not taken down quickly. The slime it it shoots can be shot through walls and can be very dangerous if you're cornered. To take this guy out, you need to destroy the boys under him. The fall will take him down because of the heavy armor it wears.

  
“Geez how many boss salmonids are there? I'm pretty sure even the guy who wrote this manual got sore from writing all off this information,” Rip said, a little bit frustrated of all the thing the have to memorize. Lex replied ,”well better to know than to be clueless going in.”

  
Lex flipped the page and Aqua read the next salmonid. “Maws.” The image depicted a large salmonid jumping from a slime puddle. A scale showed how big it was compared to a inkling. “This boss has two ways to be taken down, and she needs to be out of the slime to do so. You can either avoid her huge bite and shoot her, or get the job done faster and throw a bomb in her mouth l. It should do the job.” Lex read next.

  
“Drizzlers,” she said.This salmonid hid under a metal, inkproof, umbrella. Otherwise, it was just like any other chum. “This guy can be a real pain when least expected. He hides in the umbrella until it shoots out an slime cloud, making it rain slime. Like Maws, there are two ways to beat this guy. Either shoot him while he is not hiding under that umbrella, or, shoot back the slime Cloud before it can burst and rise into the sky. It's the fast way to take him down.”

  
Grey then read the next boss. “Flyfish,” he said. The image showed a hovercraft that shot out what looked like tentamissles. The hovercraft looked huge as well. “This guy will make you want to rip your hair out. This smallfry can't be hit with normal shots. The only way to take this bad boy down is to throw bombs into each of the missile launcher to bring the ship down. However, both wigs must be blown up in order to take it down and collect the golden eggs.”

  
Lex finished with, “these bosses are your top priority, but don't let the chum and other salmonids be ignore. Now let's get you out in the field and working.”

  
Lex closed the book. “Seems simple enough,” Ripley said. “As long as we don't get ourselves killed, I guess we're fine,” Lex added. Just then, the boats radio turned on.  
It was Mr. Grizz. “We’ approaching the Spawning Grounds. There are somethings I need to mention before you head out. If you are taken down, deploy your lifesaver so your team can get you back up.” The team took mental notes of everything Mr. Grizz said.”You are only supplied with two specials, USE THEM CAREFULLY AND WHEN NEEDED! Meet the quota before we are ready to head out. Hope you got all of that, because we're here.”

  
The group looked out over the edge of the boat. The boat stopped outside of a small, artificial island with many slants, walls and grates. In the distance was the mainland, which looked deserted. Mr. Grizz then came back on the radio, you got an hour to collect at least fifty golden eggs.” Ripley yelled, “50 eggs!? You expect us to take out that many bosses!?” Mr. Grizz replied, “I expect you to get those eggs and not whine all day. At least I'm not making you collect 120! NOW GET TO WORK!” With that, the four inklings super jumper onto the island.

  
Ridley complained, “I can't believe we have to get that many eggs for that jerk.” Aqua tried to calm him, “don't worry Rip. Maybe getting these eggs is really easy.” Rip sneered, “yeah right.” He then put his headphones on, drowning out all of the sound with his music.

  
“Don't worry about him Aqua,” Lex said to her friend. “He's just being stubborn.” Then, a siren went off, and Mr. Grizz spoke through the earpiece , “you got Salmonids on their way, NO SLACKING!”

  
“We got company down here,” Grey called to his friends to bring them to the shore line. Sure enough, the salmonids were swimming out if the sea and onto the land. They carried frying pans and leaving slime trails behind them. “Let's do this,” Lex said and thus, the onslaught began.

The group continued to take out the salmonids for another ten minutes when suddenly, they stopped appearing. “Is that all of them?” Grey asked to no one in particular. “But we haven't even found a boss salmonid yet,” Lex replied. “Speaking of not seeing anyone,” Aqua interjected, “where is Ripley?” The three inklings looked around to find the boy. “There,” Lex said, pointing to a platform Ripley was sitting on. He was looking out into the ocean, still listening to his music, which was loud enough for the inklings to hear.

  
“Hey Rip!” Grey shouted to his friend, but he didn’t budge. “Don’t worry about him Grey,” Lex said approaching him. He’ll learn his lesson.

  
Before the team could say anything else, the siren played again. Grey yelled out, “we got salmonids and a Steel Head over here!” “A boss salmonid? About time,” Lex said as her and Aqua went over to Grey. Lex formed a plan in her mind, and relayed it to her team, “ok, Grey, you jump down and take care of all the smaller salmonids, me and Aqua will focus this boss here.” Grey nodded, and he jumped down to the lover area and took out the chums and small frys. Lex looked at Aqua, “so.. um, do you remember how to take this guy out?” “The bomb on his head when charging, shoot at it.” Suddenly, a large slime ball landed next to Lex, it glew with a bright green, and both of them knew what would happen.

  
“Run!” Lex said as she pushed Aqua along the path and away from the bomb as it burst. Lex was slashed by a little bit of the slime, but she wasn't out for the count. The Steel Head charged another slime ball. “Let's get him!” Lex said as he began to charge. Quickly, Aqua took her slosher and spilled her ink onto the bomb, and Lex shot at it as well, then, the Steel Head exploded in orange ink, and three golden eggs popped out.

  
Grey cheered at the girls success, and grabbed a golden egg. _“This is kinda fun actually.”_ he thought to himself. “I wonder why people even got hurt on this job.” He swam up to the egg basket and put the egg in. “One down,” he said to himself. Before he could think again, another siren went off. Lex spoke up behind him, as she and Aqua were also carrying eggs as well.

  
“Another boss? That was fast.” The went to the other shore and saw a Scrapper quickly making its way over to the inklings. “Everyone spread out!” Lex commanded, “figure out who this guy's after.” Grey and Aqua nodded. Grey went farther left, and Aqua right. When the Scraper got up to them, then turned to face Grey, and went straight for him. Grey jumped, it remembered what to do. He shook his roller to splash the salmonid. Then, the armored sparked, it had broken down. Lex then knew to take out the salmonid in the back, along with Aqua helping out.

  
As fired shots at the salmonid, two more alarms rang. “Two waves at once?” Grey asked allowed “Lex replied, “don't worry about those ones yet until we take this one out.” The salmonid then bursts and gave three more eggs to the group. The three inklings grabbed at egg and too them to the basket. Aqua looked down to the eastern shore and saw another boss. “A Steel Eel over here,” she said to her team. Lex was about to attack with Grey, but a slime jet shot through the wall and almost splatter her. The group the noticed a Stinger on the south side. “Change of plan,” Lex said irritated, “Aqua and Grey, take care of the Steel Eel, I got the pot tower over there,” and with that, Lex ran off to take it down.”

  
Grey and Aqua then turned their attention to the Eel, which was closing in on them. Grey and Aqua quickly moved out of the way to avoid getting rolled over. The Steel Eel followed Aqua, who quickly noticed. She called to her friend, “Grey! Take out the pilot in the back!” Grey was confused at first, then saw the salmonid on the back and remembered how to take them out. He ran around to the back and shook his roller and splatter the pilot until he dropped the eggs.

  
Another two sirens went off. “Again?” Grey asked to himself as he grappled one of the golden eggs. He and Aqua each took an egg back to the basket. Grey then noticed that a golden egg was gliding across the ink. He knew it was Lex coming back from the Stinger she took out. Chum and small fries were hot on her tentacles, so Grey quickly took them out. Lex popped out of the ink. “Thanks,” she grinned as she placed the egg into the basket. “There are two more eggs at the shore,” she said to Grey, “lets go grab them.” “Yeah,” was all he said as he followed her.

  
When they made it to the shore, they saw that the eggs were missing. “Where did they go?” Lex asked. “Grey looked around pointed them out, “it seems he got to them first.” Grey pointed at a salmonid who jumped back into the water with two eggs under his fins. “Why that little…when I get my hands on you!” Lex shouted in anger. Grey placed a hand on her shoulder, “calm down Lex. We still got time.” Lex then took a deep and loosened her clenched teeth. “You're right, thanks again Grey. We just gotta focus on the task at hand with these boss salmonids. We need to be much quicker collecting eggs.”

  
“Let's go!” Lex said as she ran off to a Drizzler fall from the sky. Grey followed her until he noticed Ripley, who was simply laying down on his back listening to his music. “Should one of us tell Rip to get up and work?” he asked, Lex turned around to answer Grey, “ leave him there, he will learn his lesson.” Lex then ran off to help Aqua out. “Alright then, Grey muttered to himself as he went to help the girls.

 

-

 

A half an hour passed, they had collected 32 eggs and were getting close to reaching the quota. Another alarm rang as the three of them took out some chums and cohoks. They didn't see the boss however, but then another siren went off, and a fly fish appeared. “Quick!” Lex yelled to Aqua and Grey. “Throw the bombs into the wings and take it out!” The two of them threw the bombs simultaneously and landed them each perfectly. Lex gave a silent cheer as Grey and Aqua cheered as well. “Let's get these eggs back,” Aqua said as she picked one up. Grey and Lex followed her and grabbed an egg as well. They each placed their eggs into the basket.

  
Grey looked down to notice a trail of slime that wasn't there before, he followed it to see a bobber creating the slime, and it was heading straight for Ripley. Grey saw that Rip still hadn't noticed anything happening. He quickly swam through the ink, calling out as loud as he could.

  
“RIP! THERE’S A MAWS COMING FOR YOU!” Ripley sat up,took his headphones off, and look at his friend, “whatcha say Grey?” Ripley asked, but before Grey could answer, Maws popped out of the slime and ate Ripley.

  
Grey looked in shock. He was in so much panic, he didn't realize the alarm rang two more times. Suddenly, he heard Aqua over the earpiece, “I'm down!” Grey’s panic only increased with each passing moment, suddenly, he saw the bobber began to go for him. He quickly tried to swim away, as he did, “Crap! I'm out!” Lex shouted. Grey swam as fast as he could, he saw Aqua’s lifesaver she deployed. He jumped out of the ink to use his roller flick to save her.

  
Everything happened in slow motion for Grey, he saw Maws jump out at Grey to eat him, he was so close to flicking the roller, but the Fly Fish that appeared was able to take

him out in mid air. The crew had failed.

 

-

 

Grey’s vision was blurry He could see two figures hovering over him. He could also see the blurry, green sky. His vision cleared up, along with his hearing. He recognized the two as Ripley and Aqua. He groaned. “Hey bud, you feeling okay?” Ripley asked his friend. “I'm fine, just need to wake up a little bit.” Grey looked around. He noticed that he was back on the boat, but the island couldn't be seen. He saw Lex over at a wall, kicking it and swearing under her breath. “What happened?” Grey asked. “You see…” Aqua began.

  
“After we were all down, Mr. Grizz rang a bell that sent all of the salmonids away, and he brought us back to the boat and revived us all. He also said that we collected 35 eggs total, he sounded disappointed too.” Grey took in everything Aqua was saying. “He said that work has ended for us, and we can go home, and that we would find our schedules when we get back to base.”

  
“You mean we have to do this again?” Grey asked dishearteningly. Aqua nodded. Grey groaned and put his head in his hands. “Great, it's just gonna be this the whole summer. Us constantly failing this job that no one likes or wanted, and it's all my fault.” Lex heard Grey and went over to see if he was okay. “It's not you fault. You had no idea what this job even was.” Lex added, “Grey, I know you think I'm mad, and to be fair, I was, but after that session, I had a lot of fun. I didn't realize egg collecting could be so exhilarating.” Grey looked up at his captain. “Really?” he asked with water in his eyes. “Yeah, I think that if someone wasn't so mad at how many eggs heh had to collect, we would have been fine.” Grey and Aqua giggled, knowing who she was referring to. Ripley gave a sigh, “okay I get it, it's my fault we all lost, I got lazy and didn’t want to do all that work .” Ripley turned to Grey, “sorry I yelled at you earlier at the Square.” “It's fine we’ll get those salmonids next time.” Ripley nodded, as he held out his, hand. The group recognized it, and the put their hand together. The raised it into the air, the spread their hand quickly saying, “Splash Cloud!” They then spent the rest of the boat ride home chatting about their next try when they head back.


	8. A Little Motivation

Grey was running as fast as his legs could carry him. “Come on! I can’t believe I’m going to be late for our first game!” Grey was trying his best to get to the meeting spot with the rest of his team. He was running so fast, he didn’t give mind to who was around him. He ran around the next corner to the plaza, and he ran right into someone.  
The two of them fell onto the ground, and Grey dropping the roller he carried on his back. He looked at who he ran into. He ran into another inkling, a girl. She had her tentacles cut short, a pair of retro spec glasses, a navy king tank, and had mawcasin shoes. He also noticed an ink brush near her. Grey jumped back up to his feet, “Oh geez, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. Grey already felt rushed as he was, and now he was even more late. She replied, grabbing her brush, “Oh, you’re fine.” The girl stood up. Grey replied as she did, “Are you ok?” “Yes, I’m fine.” Grey grabbed his roller, “Again I’m sorry!” he said as he continued running. The girl watch him run off, and she gave a light laugh as she shook her head.

 

-

 

Valkin paced inside the practice range. He was waiting for the rest of his team to show up. Valkin is captain of Team Tentacle Outbreak. He wears a king flip mesh, a dark bomber jacket, and a pair of punk blacks. Valkin also uses the Splat Brella, and has become well known for his skill. After achieving S+, Valkin wanted to train others to be just as great. Thus, Tentacle Outbreak was formed.

  
The kind of team Valkin wanted were inklings who wanted to truly improve their game. This meant that some inklings would not be too hasty to practice as much as he did.  
Valkin was slowly getting more impatient, but before he could say anything, someone walk through the door, but it was not who he expected. “Sorry Valkin,” his friend said. “I was on my way and I ran into someone.” Valkin sighed, “that’s fine Mia. Have you seen Eve?” Mia shook her head.”I’m sorry, but I have not seen her.” “This is the fourth time she’s been late to practice, “Valkin said in a frustrated tone, “Does she not know what she signed up for?” Valkin turned around to his other teammate.

  
“Sydney!” Sydney jumped at the sound of his name. He was not expecting the sudden yell from his captain. He sat on top of the grate platform, and almost fell off.  
Sydney was the third member of Tentacle Outbreak. He wore a fishfry visor, the prune parachuter, and a pair of Black Norimaki 750s. His used the Clash Blaster as his main weapon.

  
Sydney took his earbuds out, “What’s up?” Valkin replied backed, “Have you heard if Eve was coming or not?”

  
“Can’t say I have,” Sydney replied back. All Valkin could do was sigh. However, Valkin did not have to wait very long for his final teammate. About ten minutes passed before Eve finally came through the door.

  
“Hey!” Eve said upon entering the practice range. Eve was the newest member of Tentacle Outbreak. She uses the N-Zap ‘85 and wears a Hickory Work Cap, a Red Vector tee, and a pair of White Kicks. Everyone looked at Eve, without saying a word. Confused, Eve asked, “What? Is there something on my face?” Valkin sighed. He approached her teammate as Mia and Sydney watched.

  
“Eve,” Valkin began, “this is the fourth practice you’ve been late.”

  
“Late!? I thought practice starts at Nine O'clock!”

  
“No Eve, I’ve told you three times already that practice is at eight.”

  
Valkin then said, “Eve, why did you join my team?”

  
“Because I want to get better at competitive.”

  
“Right, but to me, you seem like you don’t care about getting better at all.”

  
Eve was surprised, as if she did not realize what she was doing was wrong. “But I do want to get better,” Eve defended herself. “Eve,” Valkin began, “if you truly want to get better, then you need to practice more.”

  
“So,” Valkin stated firmly, “then you need to stay a practices longer, and work harder.” Eve thought for a moment on what to say, but it did not take very long to decide on what to do. “Fine then! I can and will. I’ll practice better and be on time.” “Fine,” Valkin replied back, “then practice for you begins right now.”

  
Mia and Sydney watched what happened between the other two inklings. “I bet ten bucks that she won’t go through with it,” Sydney bribed the girl. Mia challenged back, “I bet twenty bucks she will!” “You’re on!”

 

-

 

Eve stood, waiting for her first test. The team had arrived at Snapper Canal to train. Valkin was around the corner, discussing his plan with Sydney and Mia. Soon enough, Valkin called, “Eve! Whenever you are ready.” Eve then went back to her three other teammates. When she met with them, Valkin, who wasted no time getting started. “First thing up on the agenda is realizing when to go in and back off, Valkin said before continuing.

  
“Now, an important part of any battle is when you are outmatched. If your team has fewer active players than the other team, back off, you can still fight if you need to, but only from a safe position and if necessary. Now, since we don’t have a Rainmaker or Tower, we are just going to use this outline representing the Splat Zone. So, say you lost three teammates, and the enemy has three, and they are approaching you. That's what I want you to demonstrate.”

  
“That’s it?” Eve asked, “that’ll be a piece of crab cake!” Valkin smirked, “If you think it’s that easy, the try getting back against us.” Valkin flipped his Splat Brella around, and quickly splatted Eve. Mia and Sydney stared at the Valkin, who splatted their teammate so mercilessly.

  
Eve respawned in a spawning pool. The angered inkling then proceed to her captain. “What was that for!?” Eve yelled. “Simple Valkin replied, seemingly unphased by Eve snapping at him. “You were not careful. You have to treat any kind of threat as if it was your last.” “Meaning…?” Eve asked, still frustrated. Valkin chuckled, “Meaning we still have work to do.”

 

-

 

“Next,” Valkin continued, “we need to test your pressure game. Syd will try to splat you, and you need to either make him retreat, or splat him. Got it?” Eve replied, “Seems simple enough.” “Alright then,” Valkin backed off in a trail of ink, and immediately, Sydney began to swim towards her. Eve tried to fire back at Sydney, but he jumped out and tossed a splat bomb, splatting Eve quickly.

  
Eve returned to to the two boys, who Valkin was complimenting Sydney. “Alright,” Valkin said, when he noticed Eve returning from the spawn. “The first problem was that you had no turf to swim around, you can’t run from a splat bomb while it’s at your feet. Make sure you have somewhere to dodge an attack or back off on an attacker.”

  
“Okay bu-"

 

“Now, let’s try that, see where it goes.”

  
Eve didn’t want to argue back with Valkin, even though she wanted to protest so badly. Nonetheless, she did as ger captain said.

  
Eve and Sydney went back into position, and waited for Valkin’s command. “Go!’ When Sydney began to approach, Eve turned to create an escape route behind her, but she was once again quickly splatted.

  
Valkin laughed to himself, but was still noticeable. “What’s so funny?” Sydney ask. Valkin doesn’t laugh too often, and takes anything with complete seriousness.He replied, “I am amused. Compared to Eve, you look like a pro.” Valkin laughed again. Sydney immediately retaliated, “Oh come on Valkin, I’ve gotten so much better than before.” Valkin chuckled again, “yeah, sure.”

  
Eve returned once again, obviously angered. Valkin wasted no time and told her, “Never turn your back on the enemy. Basic rules Eve, you should know this stuff.” Eve grumbled, but Valkin ignored it. “Let’s just move to the next lesson for now.”

Valkin continued, “Your next lesson will be on knowing when to attack. Any valuable point in a battle is getting the jump on your enemy. Basicly, find them before they find you. Me, Syd, and Mia will be patrolling the canal, you have to splat all of us, and if you get splatted, you have to start over. Got it?” Eve replied, not too happily, “yeah…” Valkin nodded, and then super jumped back to his spawn.

  
Eve knew she had to hide somewhere. She found a small ledge that she could hide behind. She made a small ink puddle, and dived into it. After about a minute of waiting, she heard someone approaching her.

  
Mia jumped off the ledge where Eve was hiding. It didn’t take long for her to find Eve. With a few quick fliks of her brush, Eve was splatted. “I got her!” she yelled to the two boys, who approached her.

  
“That was fast,” Sydney said as he approached his teammate. “She was hiding in a tiny puddle right there,” Mia then pointed to the turquoise puddle of ink where she was splatted. Valkin put a hand to his face and shook his head, giving a heavy sigh. “Let me guess,” Mia asked, “you don’t think she is cut out for it?”

  
The trio the noticed that Eve returned, her face was as red as tomato. “Mia told me how you failed,” Valkin explained, “You need to have more map covered so-” before Valkin could finish, Eve pulled her Z’nap to splat Valkin mid sentence. Mai and Sydney stared in shock what Eve had pulled off. “Are you insane!?” Sydney said in surprise, “Do you know what he is going to do to you when he gets back!?” Eve replied in an angered tone, “You think I’m going to sit here and let him criticize me? Well, I’m not letting that happen!” Mia interjected, “Eve, listen, you wanted to join this team because you wanted to improve, am I wrong?” “I wanted to improve, not get insulted.”

  
“But Valkin is one of the best players in the league, he would know more than you would.”

  
“S+ or not, all he has done is complain.”

  
“Eve, you wanted to get better, and Valkin is helping you do that, don’t you expect some criticism?”

  
“I expect help.”

  
“But that’s what Valkin is doing. You’re rejecting his help.”

  
“I don’t need his rude ‘help’.”

  
“But he went out of his way to plan these training sessions. If you truly want to get better, then actually do something instead of sitting on your ass and blaming everything else for your fault!”

  
Eve didn’t reply, she simply thought to herself. Mia was taking deep breaths after all of her yelling. Sydney simply watched in horor everything that had just happened. “She’s never yelled at anyone like that before.”

  
Eve, sighed, “I’m… I’m…” Yes?” Mia replied back, who had calmed herself down. “I’m…” “come ooon,” Mia teased, “you can say it.” I’m sorry,” Eve admitted. “I guess I shouldn’t have jumped to a conclusion like that.”

  
Before Mia could reply, they heard a laugh, and he was not trying to hide it. Valkin appeared from behind a wall. He continued to laugh as he approached her. “That’s the kind of spirit I’m looking for!” he said as he continued to laugh. He took a deep breath before continuing. “I see potential in you Eve, but you just gotta have patience. I was going to tell you before you splatted me, but I see Mia got the job done.” Eve gave a smile, knowing she did something right. “So, just be more patient?” “Exactly,” Valkin replied. “I think we could all use a break,” Mia said, “why don’t we head over and get something from Crust Bucket?” “Sounds good to me,” Valkin said. “I agree!” Eve said as well. “Well,” There’s not time to lose.” With that, the three inklings went off, putting their past behind them.

  
Sydney stood by himself as his friends walked off without him. He was completely dumbfounded, with his mouth wide open. ‘What just happened?”


	9. Clash at the Port

Valkin waited at patiently outside the battle tower. He arrived extremely early, even before anyone on his own team arrived. He wanted to make sure he was wide awake for their first placement battle, which was much later than anyone else's. He spent his time thinking of the best strategy and looking in his phone for information.

  
About a fifteen minutes passed before his first teammate arrived, it was Mia. She kindly greeted the captain. “Where’s everyone else?” she asked. “Well, I said I would be here early,” Valik stated. “I bet that Sydney hasn’t even gotten out of bed yet,” Mia joked. Valkin smiled, but nothing else.

  
However, to their surprise, Eve arrived early. “This’s the earliest you have been Eve.” Valkin said. “Congrats!” Mia congratulated her teammate. “You said you were going to be early,” Eve stated, “you never said it was good to be early.” “That’s a good habit to get into,” Valkin complimented.

  
“So, what map are we heading to?” Mia asked. “Port Mackerel,” Valkin replied swiftly, “So play aggressive here, but don’t go to deep. Eve, use your ink armor to push if needed, for all of us.” Eve nodded, then asked, “Who are we up against?” Before the inkling could answer, Mia did it for her. “See for yourself,” She said pointing to a group of inklings approaching the tower as Eve turned to look.

  
She recognized the team instantly, Splat Bombers. “Valkin!” Gil greeted, “Long time so see.” “To you as well,” Valkin replied. The clapped each others hands and gave a firm and shake. The other inklings greeted each other as well.

  
Honey went up to Eve, “You must be new here, Haven't seen you before.” Yep, I’m Eve!” Honey smirked and extended her arm, “The name’s Honey.” Eve went to grab Honey’s hand. Eve suddenly felt a shock through her body, and quickly let go of Honey’s hand. She looked at her hand, then back at Honey. She was holding back from bursting into laughter. Eve saw that the girl had a shocker on her hand. Honey then said, “I like you Eve.”

  
Mia noticed a girl she recognized on the other team. “Fira?” she asked as she approached the girl. “Cous’?” she replied back. “Oh my gosh it is you!” Mia said as she quickly ran up and hugged her cousin tightly. Fira was surprised by the sudden contact with Mia, and she eventually gave a light hug back, ‘uhh, good to see you too.” Mia then let go, “How long has it been, two three years?” the excited inkling asked. Fira replied almost emotionlessly, “Uh, five.” The two then just looked at each other in silence for a moment. “Well cousin or not, I will show no mercy to my foes!” Mia exclaimed. Fira smiled under her painters mask, “that’s the spirit.”

  
As the inklings mingled with each other, they did not notice who was panting right at the battle tower entrance, except for Mia. “Hey Syd!” Somehow, everyone heard Mia greet her teammate, and they all turned to the late inkling, who was exhausted from running. He noticed everyone staring at him. He gave a half hearted chuckle, “eh...heh heh heh… hey guys” Mia, Eve, and Honey all gave a giggle at Sydney. Valkin called out to him. “We can hear your explanation later Syd. We got a game to get to!”  
Unintentionally, Valkin cued everyone to head into the battle tower. Sydney noticed them, and ran again to catch up with the other inklings.

 

-

 

“Welcome back squid kids to another fresh placement match in the Turf War league!” Pearl shouted excitedly. Marina continued off of her friend, “Today we’ve got an exciting match between team Splat Bombers, and the new team Tentacle Outbreak!” “Isn’t the captain of Tentacle Outbreak that really goo brella player that got to S+ in only a week?” Pearl asked her friend. “I think it is,” Marina replied, “He sue to play in a duo with that Enperry player, I wonder why they stopped.”

  
Valkin turned to his teammates while waiting for the battle to begin. “Alright everyone,” he began, sounding almost militaristic, “today marks the beginning of your career. We may have had some troubles in the past, but, I believe we have what it takes to rise on top. We may not get there, as it is your first game, but I do believe tha-” Valkin was interrupted by the alarm going off, signaling the start of the battle.

  
The three other inklings ran off to cover what turf the could, Mia and Eve heading down the center paths, while Sydney took the left flank. Valkin internally sighed before joining the rest of his the rest of his team down the center allies.

  
Valkin reached the open are at the same time as Eve, and Mia already rushed ahead the the center maze. Valkin first tossed a sprinkler on top of the highest crate, to cover as much turf as he could. He began to cover more around their half of the map before advancing forward. “Don’t let your guard down!” the captain shouted to his teammates, more specifically Eve, who was head towards the center maze of the map.

  
Eve covered everything she could around her, but what was most confusing to her was was where Mia ran off to. She couldn’t find the trail she made, as it had been covered up by her own pink ink. Nonetheless, she continued to claim more turf.

  
She was slowly making her way past the purple sponge, when suddenly, Duncan jumped out and tried to splat her. Luckily, he missed a direct hit, but Eve was hit by the bust of the blaster. She placed a suction bomb at her feet, and swam away. Duncan saw the bomb, and backed off, but unfortunately for him, Mia popped out of ink right behind him, and splatted the inkling. Eve saw that Mia got Duncan, and gave a cheer for her.

  
Suddenly, Eve was splatted in an instant by Honey, who was had a clean shot from the open area. Mia ducked behind a crate to take cover from the sniper.

  
Mia tried to think of what to do. She knew that if she tried to jump her, she herself would probably get splatted. Suddenly, she peered around the corner, Honey was still there.

  
Suddenly, a huge pink beam came through the walls and went straight for Honey. The sniper was forced to move. Mia took this chance to get the jump on Honey while she was busy with the stingray. She quickly ran around the corner and rushed down Honey. Honey was in a state of panic, and used short quick shots to try and stop Mia, but she failed.

  
Mia ran back to the center, cheering to herself. _“Thanks Syd,”_ she said in her head.

  
Sydney’s stingray ran out of power, but he knew Mia got Honey. _“Nice work Mia,”_ he said in his mind. He proceeded to jump down to the main battlefield from the flank route. Valkin had just finished covering their half of the map, but noticed that the center maze area was being covered back up with purple ink. Sydney went to the small crate that he could get on top of to get an advantage point.

  
He saw an ink trail go off to his far right. He turned to the captain, “Valkin, one’s coming on the right!” He watched as Valkin quickly turned and Gil jumped out of the ink and instant did a roll, Valkin was able to shield it just in time, but he rolled once more and got behind Valkin’s shield, and quickly splatted him.

  
Sydney watched as he tossed a curling bomb in his direction, swimming close behind it. Sydney went and hid back in his ink patch as he came by. Gil then used his inkjet and began to cover more turf. Sydney waited for Gil to pass by. Once gil’s back was to him, Sydney jumped out. “Gottcha now!” He shouted pointing his Clash balster at the captain. Sydney was able to get one direct hit on Gil before the flying inkling turned around. Sydney was able to get two more direct shots with his weapon, but the traded two inklings traded, splatting each other.

  
Mia went back to their half of the map, trying to cover up the purple ink. Suddenly, a point sensor stuck to her. _“Carp!”_ she said in her mind. Mia made a quick turn around and tried to run opposite of the alley way, but unfortunately, she was cut off by Fira, and was quickly splatted.

  
Valkin respawned, and quickly covered up what they missed in their spawn area. While he was covering it up, he noticed Sydney respawned. Valkin’s hair lit up, and it gave him an idea. He called out to his teammate, “Syd!” The boy perked up at the sound of his name. “How much more charge do you need on your sting ray?” “It reset, I barely have any charge.” Valkin saw they only had a minute left. “Well, if you can, try to get that sting ray ready.” Valkin then swam off to find Eve.

  
Sydney stood confused for a moment until he saw Mia respawn. Once she was recovered, Mia quickly ran off back to the battle. “You coming?” she called out to her friend, “or are you chickenin’ out?” “H-hey! I’m coming!” Sydney shouted as he took the left side flank.

  
Valkin found Eve on top of the large crate, taking cover. Valkin swam up the sponge the tell her his plan. “Valkin?” she asked, confused on what he wanted. “Eve, we don’t have much time, but here is the plan. How much until your ink armor is ready?” “My ink armor? But that won’t help us splat them!” “Trust me Eve, this will work. There are always more than one solution to a problem. Splatting them is just the one step.” “But-” Eve was cut off by the captain, “Do you want to win!? Because you need to try!” The two inklings stared at each other, until Eve pulled out her Zapper, and shot down to the enemy territory. It did not take long for her hair to light up. Valkin nodded, “Good, just use it when i saw ‘now’”.

  
“Oi Valk!” Mia called from below. The captain leaned over the platform to she the girl, “ What do you want to do?” “I think you’ll know when,” he said in an anonymous tone. Mia simply nodded, and waited to strike.

  
Valkin stood up on his feet and pulled out his ink storm, and tossed it straight into the enemy territory. “Now!” Valkin shouted. Eve used her ink armor, and it began to cover the rest of the team. Mai quickly jumped up and used the protection to her advantage. She used the pink rain as cover, and was able to splat Fira. Valkin the jumped off the crate and tossed a sprinkler to the side as he began to fight himself. He was able to splat Duncan, but at the cost of his ink armor.

  
Mia was about to get a jump on Gil, but was quickly splatted by Honey. Valkin took cover from the sniper before he got shot. While he was able to take cover, Gil caught him before he could pull his Brella shield out.

  
Eve watched the carnage that unfolded before her. She sighed, not knowing what to do. She was considering just giving up, but then, something happened.  
A large pink beam came through the walls and went straight for Honey, how got out of it before it could splat her. “Sydney,” the girl thought to herself. Something about Sydney using his stingray caused her to think about someone. Honey, splatting her friend, herself, and pranking her cause Eve to finally snapped. She jumped off of the platform and quickly went after Honey, who was too busy dealing with the stingray going after her, which made an easy splat for the girl. Eve celebrated not only her first splat, but a vengeance splat “Hahaha! I got you ya bi-” but she wAs quickly interrupted by Gil splatting her. “Well tha’s tha.” Gil said as he began to clean up the rest of the turf. However, he did not noticed the splat bomb that was placed at his feet, and was instantly splatted.

  
Sydney stood shocked that his plan actually worked. It took him a moment that there is only ten seconds left. He quickly covered as much turf as he could, even with his blaster. He also noticed that Mia was super jumping to him. She landed, which startled Sydney. She noticed that the boy stopped yelled, ‘Come on Syd, we got this!” Sydney without question, and went back to covering turf, but before he could cover much, the timer went off. “Game!” Pearl shouted through the speaker.

 

-

 

The two teams waited eagerly around Judd and Lil’ Judd. The, Judd pulled out a Pink flag, claiming the victors.

  
Valkin smiled proudly as Mia, Sydney, and Eve all celebrated their first victory as a team. They cheered and complemented each other for all of the fantastic plays they had. Valkin noticed Gil approach him, and he turned to face his old friend. “It seems you have some new blood,” he committed in cool manor. “They’re ready to rumble,” Valkin replied, in a confident, but relaxed voice, “They wanted to get better, and that’s what I’m going to do.” Gil smiled, “Good on ya,” He extends his hand again, and Valkin grabs and two give a firm shake. “See ya ‘round,” Gil said before walking back to his team, who looked very disappointed.

  
Valkin watched as Splat Bombers walked off, and was suddenly tackled by Mia, who gave him a tight hug. “We did it!” She cheered excitedly. Eve also approached the two of them and joined in on the hug.

  
Mia noticed that something was missing, and she turned to see Sydney looking at his three other teammates. Mia laughed, “come, get over here ya dork.” Sydney approached the team and joined in the hug. They let of their energy in the hug, enjoying the victory while it lasted.


	10. Old Friends, New Rivals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a collab with a friend of mine and using her OCs! You can check out her OCs and their story here! -> https://archiveofourown.org/works/13595304/chapters/31208715

“What’s taking her so long?” Ripley asked impatiently. He was waiting at the teams usual spot. “Maybe she just got caught up.” Aqua said trying to relax the inkling. “She said it was really important,” Grey stated, “but she isn’t even here herself.” It’s been ten minutes!” Rip exclaimed, “She hasn’t even sai-” he was interrupted by Grey’s enthusiasm, “Oh, there you are Lex!”

  
Rip slowly turned around to face his captain. “Uhh, hey Lex,” he said trying to sound relaxed, but Ripley is not the best actor. “I’m just gonna pretend I never heard anything,” Lex stated before addressing the rest of her team. “Anyways, I have called you guys here because I have some awesome news.” Grey asked, “Come on Lex, I’ve been waiting to hear about this since you texted us!” Lex gave a light laugh with Grey’s excitement.

  
“Well, instead of our regular practice routine, we are going to be doing a mini scrimmage match with an old friend of mine.” “On old friend eh?” Ripley question, “Who is the old friend?” “Remember that girl I told you about from Camp Triggerfish? The one who also wanted to play the Splattershot pro, and we fought over it on who was the better pro player?” “Oh!” Grey interrupted, “The girl that you were partnered with, but you guys worked so well together, and you became friends ever since?” “Yep!’ Lex stated happily, “I wanted to tell you guys she texted me and asked if we could do a practice battle against her team.”

  
“I hope you accepted,” Ripley replied cheerfully, “that sounds like an awesome way to get some practice!” Lex laughed, “Of course I did Rip! I’m not that stupid.” She gave a light punch on the boy’s shoulder. “What was her name again?” Aqua asked quietly, “Maddie? Mckayla?” Lex replied, “Machiko.” “She is super nice, you don’t need to worry Aqua.” Aqua blushed red, and tried to hide it.

  
Lex addressed the rest of her team, “I have not met her team yet. For some reason, her team is signed up for the league, but we don't play against her in the placements at all. So the best I can say is, know how to counter their weapons, whatever they are.”

  
Lex extended her hand into the center of the group. Rip, Aqua, and Grey all followed suit, and threw their arms into the air, shouting, “Splash Cloud!” before running of to the battle tower to meet Machiko and her team.

 

- 

 

The team arrived at the battle tower, and for the first time, they were the first to show up. Lex realized that they were early this time, and had to wait. However, they were not too early, as it did not take long for Machiko and her team to show up.

  
Machiko was at an average height for her age, not short, but not tall. She had long orange hair, and orange eyes. She wore a pair of pilot goggles, a pirate stripe tee, short shots, and orange arrow shoes. Machiko had a huge smile on her face when she saw her old friend. The girl ran her old friend, and the two embraced into a hug.  
“It’s so great to see you Lexy!” Lex smiled and replied back at the excited girl, “It’s good to see you too Machi.” The two inklings let go of each other, Machi’s energy was overflowing. “I need to introduce you to my team!” Machiko then went one by one going through her team.

  
On the far left was a boy, who looked nervous about meeting Lex and her team. He was short, but still taller than Ripley (The nervous boy goes up to about Machiko’s nose). He had lime green tentacles, that were put into a pony tail, with three tips hanging over the top of his forehead. The boy also had yellow eyes. He had a pair of full moon glasses that were painted blue, a forest green sweater with a white, button-up under shirt, shorts with stripe, and blue lo-top shoes. “First our newest recruit, Quincy!” Machinko introduced. Quincy jumped at the sound of his name, and became even more embarrassed. Machinko wasted no time introducing the rest of her team, and moved onto the next member.

  
The girl in the middle was short, just a tad shorter than Ripley. She had light blue tentacles that were in long, twin tails that went down to the girl’s ankles, along with light blue eyes. She had a neat bow tied on top of her head, a white tank top with a squid icon, and a pair of violet trainers. She had a very confident look as well. Machinko then introduced, “Then, we have Kiki!” With the sound of her name, Kiki gave a boastful and confident smile to Splash Cloud. Lex remained her usually poker face, Grey was still excited as ever, while Aqua became even more nervous around her, and Ripley took it as a challenge, but didn’t say anything

  
Machinko moved quickly onto the next, and final teammate. He hand bright pink hair that seemed to be some kind of small bun/bow and also had light blue eyes. He had an expression that looked as if he didn’t want to be here. He and pink piercings, a pink sweater that was pulled down just past his shoulders, revealing a black undershirt. He had shots and a pair of cherry kicks. He was just slightly taller than Quincy. “And finally, we have Clarrence! He might look miserable, but trust me, he is glad to be here.” Clarrence then gave a forced chuckle, along with a forced smile.

  
“And with me,” Machinko stated, “We are team Crash Course!” Lex smiled behind her annaki mask, “It’s great to meet all of you. Now, I’d like to introduce you to my team.” Lex introduced everyone, from right to left, “We have Aqua, Ripley, and Grey, making us team Splash Cloud!” Lex said with pride. Machinko replied with a smile, “I’m so glad to meet all of your friends.”

  
“So where are we heading?” Lex asked, “You’re the one who planned this battle,” she smirked behind her mask. Machinko could tell, and laughed, “Well, my original plan was to got to Arowana Mall, but they closed it before it became reopened for turf wars. So I tried Moray Towers, but it is booked because of the placement matches.” Lex interrupted, “let me guess, you got us a game at Blackbelly Skatepark?” Machinko beamed brightly, “Oh Lexy! You know me so well!”

 

Lex stood on the spawn pad, waiting for the timer to start. Her team began banter behind her. “I wonder what’s up with that Quincy kid? Why is he so nervous?” Ripley asked. “Maybe he is shy like Aqua.” Grey suggested. “I don’t know,” Ripley stated, “something about him feels different from her.” Aqua interjected softly, “I thought Machinko was pretty nice, a little intense. Uhm! For me at least,” she replied, not wanting to upset Lex by criticizing her friend. “Yeah,” Grey replied back, “She was pretty cool.” “I wonder what weapons they’re gonna use,” he continued his rambling. “I hope they are easily countered by my Splattling!” Rip said hoisting the weapon over his head, but lost balance with the weight of the splattling. Aqua gave a light giggle as Rip began to regain balance.

  
Lex interjected their conversation, “The clock is about to start, you all better get ready. I can’t really say much because I don’t know their weapons except Machi’s, so all I can tell you is be careful around the center tower. It's a turf war, so I’d say that Grey should try and take control of it until Rip can get safely onto it, the defend that center area. Me and Aqua will cover around the tower and take anyone out along the way, got it?” The three inklings nodded in response to their captain. Lex nodded as well, “good, because we are starting in 3...2…..1……

  
The teams quickly ran of to cover as much turf as they could, Lex going far left, Aqua and Rip were covering the open, area on the right. Grey b-lined straight for the center with his curling bomb. He got to the large tower at the center and flicked his roller vertically to climb it. Once on the top, he was greeted by an auto bomb, that had targeted and began to chase him. Grey backed off and jumped off the tower before the bomb could burst and splat him. After wiping the sweat off his forehead, he went back up the tower once again, this time, Clarrence was there, and with how light the carbon roller is, he was able to splat Grey first.

  
Lex say what happened to Grey from a distance. _“Should have tried to get his splashdown first,”_ She thought to herself. Lex didn’t let it stop her, as she continued to cover their map with mint green ink. Lex got her special, and quickly tossed her ink storm out. She yelled to the rest of her team, “Alright everyone, push the attack!”  
Ripley and Aqua both heard their captain, and saw her ink storm traveling across the center tower. In response, Aqua swam to the center area of the map, using the storm as cover. Ripley got his sting ray out to give the enemy team pressure.

  
Lex advanced with Aqua as well. As the storm flew over the tower, Clarrence was forced to jump off, and unfortunately, right in to perfect spot for Lex to splat him. Lex and Aqua continued to cover more turf, and began to take control of the center area.

  
After his special wore off, Ripley took advantage of the control they had, and made his way to the center tower, and claimed the top. “Good work guys!” Lex complimented her team, “Let’s keep a strong defense.”

  
Grey returned to the rest of the team after they took control. He covered up a small area that he missed.. He was cleaning it up, until he heard his friend. “Someone on the left side route!” Ripley shouted. Grey immediately shouted back excitedly, “Leave it to me!” Grey swam of to the left side route, and saw some peach pink ink. Grey jumped out and began to cover it up himself.

  
As he went further to clean it up, he sees Machiko in across the half pipe. He tosses a curling bomb at her. Machinko immediately spots it, and doges it. She comes back out an tries to make her way towards Grey. The boy was able to keep his distance, but he forgot to go behind the ballon barrier. Grey was quickly splatted from behind “Gah!” he shouted. His splatter was Quincy and his Tentabrella.

  
Ripley heard his friend shout, and quickly turned to face what had happened. He saw Quincy, who had, for some reason, sat down and held his chest. Ripley started to charge his splattling. But somehow, Quincy noticed him, and was able to pull out his brella shield just in time before Ripley could splat him.Ripley groaned in frustration that he failed to splat the kid. He went to charge again, but was quickly splatted in the back, the culprit was Kiki with her Heavy Splattling Deco, and he was taken out easily.

  
Both Lex noticed the boys were down and she called to Aqua, “Rip and Grey are down, let’s retreat back to our side!” Aqua nodded, and the two raced back to their half.  
On Lex’s way back, She saw Machinko. Knowing her original deal with her friend, she gave a devilish smile behind her mask, and began to fire at Machi. Her friend must have been thinking the same thing, and they fired at the same time.The two shot back and forth at each other. In the end, the two came close to splatting the other, but after the struggle, the two splatted each other at the same time.

  
Grey respawned and saw Ripley who covering turf from the platform that the other team could not reach. Grey took the small, right drop. He went to the right side route. As he approached around the corner, he saw Quincy on top of the center tower. Before he could try to take him out, he heard Lex on his earpiece. “Grey! I don’t want yo going in yet! We need to regroup before any of us!” Grey looked around the corner again. He looked back towards the tower and Quincy. He saw that someone was super jumping to him and making a choice, Grey chose to jump back to spawn.

  
Ripley turned around to see Grey landed onto the spawn platform. “There you are.” He said, slightly irritated. “Where’s Lex and Aqua?” the younger boy asked. Ripley turned around, focusing back to the battlefield. “Lex got splatted, simple as that.”

  
Grey then noticed someone respawning. Surprisingly, it was Aqua. “Aqua?” Grey asked confused. Aqua had her hands on her knees. Before she could respond, Lex returned next to her, and Aqua jumped a little. “There you are,” Lex said referring to Grey. Ripley swam back to the rest of his team.

  
“Alright, so here is my idea,” Lex began. “Rip, Aqua, go take the side route and build your special. I think you know what platform to go on.” Ripley nodded. “Alright, Me and Grey will make a diversion up front. So make it quick you two!” Aqua squeaked and stood up straight when Lex yelled. Lex noticed, “Sorry Aqua, she said with sympathy. Aqua simply turned her head down and gave quiet, light groan.

  
The team heard a crash and looked back to the battle field and saw three large, peach pink bubbles floating, along with an inkstorm rising into the sky. “Enough chit chat,” Lex said, “We gotta get moving!”

  
With that, the two pairs split off into their respective halves. Grey followed her captain right into the mayhem of the battlefield. The bubbles already popped before they could hit them. Lex jumped out slightly early and began to fire into the enemy territory. Grey went past the captain, and she shouted, “watch it Grey!” Grey herd the captain and stopped himself before he got too deep. He took cover behind a small wall slightly to the left. “Sorry Lex!” He shouted back rubbing the back of his head. Lex rolled her eyes and continued firing.

  
Grey tossed curling bombs into the center territory, while Lex swam to take cover behind a small wall, left of Grey. Lex was slowly becoming frustrated. “Come on, where are they?”

  
As Grey continued to toss curling bombs, he notice something off the corner of his eye. A ripple of ink approaching on the left side. “Lex! Watch out!” Lex tuned to her left and she quickly turned to her left and saw the trail approaching her. Clarrence came out of the ink in an attempt to splat Lex, but she got out of the way in time. Grey was able to cove her back and splat the boy in the sweet spot with his roller. Clarrence shouted, “ack!” as he was splatted.

  
“Thanks for the assist,” Lex thanked the inkling. Grey smiled brightly and gave a thumbs up. Before they could continue celebrating, the two were under fire yet again by Machinko. The two inklings once again went back to cover.

  
Lex turned to her teammate. “We can’t simply just get up to Machinko since she’s up on the tower, and time is running out of time.” Grey thought of what to do, until he and Lex heard a whistling sound come from the sky. Lex and Grey both looked up to see mint green missiles flying through the air. They watched as the targeted Machinko. Lex took the opportunity to take her out. Grey watched in awe from behind cover. The girls traded fire one again, and once again, they traded.

  
Grey realized the was still 15 seconds remaining, and quickly jumped from cover to cover as much turf as he could. His glew as he did. As he continued to cover the right side of the tower, Quincy came out from hiding and tried to fire at Grey, but he missed. Grey swam to the side of the boy and tried to flick at Quincy, but he also missed. Grey jumped into the air as a cloud formed around him and he slammed into the ground, but he was blocked by Quincy’s shield. Shocked on how quickly the boy blocked his attack, Quincy took a second, but was able to splat Grey. Quincy wiped sweat and ink of of his face.

  
Aqua approached around the corner and saw Quincy's back to her. She quickly was able to slosh the boy before he realized what was going on, and it only took one hit. Aqua’s but her hands on her chest as it raised and lowered. She took heavy, quick breaths. Aqua then looked up at the timer and saw she only had saw she only had seven seconds left. She panicked and quickly tried to cover all that she could.

  
Aqua then heard someone approach behind her. It was Kiki. Aqua saw her cazed eyes, and Kiki say Aqua’s fearful ones. The short girl prepared to charge at her. Aqua knew she couldn’t reach the other girl. So she tried to hide her face behind her Slosher. Luckily for Aqua, the alarm went off, signaling the battle had ended. A few pink ink bullets landed at the tall girl’s feet.

  
Aqua was still hiding behind her Slosher, shaking. She peeked from behind it to see Kiki had dropped her Splattling, and shot a finger gun at her. Then, the short girl ran back to regroup with her team. Aqua watched the girl run off, and was completely dumbfounded.

 

-

 

The eight inklings all waited impatiently around Judd, chatting with each other, and waiting to hear the results. Judd and Little Judd turned to the teams after discussing. They put their hands behind their backs to reveal the winner. Quickly, Lil’ Judd pulled out a peachy pink flag.

  
Machinko and her friends cheered at their victory, congratulating and complimenting each other. Meanwhile, Splash Cloud was disappointed. Ripley gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment. Lex looked disappointingly at the ground. Grey groaned upsettingly as he dropped his roller. Finally, Aqua tightened up and hugged her Slosher close to her, almost crying. Crash Course approached the defeated team to try and cheer them up.

  
Lex pulled her mask down as her old friend approached her., “I’ll admit I was surprised by your team Machi.” Machinko laughed in a humble manor,kicking her feet across the ground, “Oh my gosh, Lexy, it was nothing, really.” Lex smiled confidently, Don’t think this means though you are the better Pro player, though. We only traded.” Machinko beamed brightly in response, “not until next time!”

  
Kiki approached Aqua, who was looking at the ground, still holding her bucket. “You were really good!” Kiki said excitedly, standing on her tiptoes. When Aqua heard the small girl, she jumped, and even backed up a tad. She looked at Kiki, and Kiki looked back at her. Aqua didn’t realize her mouth was gaping open. She panicked and stuttered, “U-u-u-uhh, t-thank you,” Aqua said meekly while bowing. Kiki was confused for a moment, “Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s just a skirmish, but I still think you did great.” Aqua blushed, “Thank you…..a-again.” Kiki giggled at the blushing girl, which made Aqua blush even more. _“What an odd girl,”_ Aqua thought to herself.

  
Grey saw Clarrence leaned against a wall, looking aimlessly. Grey ran up to the inkling. “You got me with earlier really good!” he complimented. Clarrence was surprised for a moment, but turned back to looking aimlessly. “Oh, yeah, I did do that huh?” Grey gave a big smile, “Yep! It was pretty clever!” grey gave him a bump in the side of Clarrence with his elbow. It caught the boy off guard, but he looked at Grey, and gave a light laugh with him.

 

-

 

The teams arrived back outside of the Battle Tower. Lex laughed with her old friend, “next time, I’ll train my team harderas hard, and we’ll take you down!” Machinko smiled, “In that case, I’ll train my team harder to keep that title!” “We’ll see about that!” Lex laughed. “Machinko laughed again.

  
Lex said, “You know, we should sit down and get some lunch. On me!” Machinko replied, “No no Lex, I’ll pay for it with you. You can’t pay for all eight of us.” Everyone else laughed Lex blushed,and to prevent anyone from noticing, she gave a punch to Grey in the gut, but not too hard. Everyone looked at Grey as he held his stomach after the hit, but he laughed, which caused everyone else to laugh on their way to the Crust Bucket.


	11. Struggles of the Shark

*Six month ago*

 

 

Perry entered the practice range almost silently, but Sarah and Kevin were still able to notice him enter. Sarah was leaned back on a wall, while Kevin was on the ground, looking at his phone, until Perry caught his attention. Sarah pushed herself off the wall and approached her captain at the same time as he approached her. “What did she say?” the girl ask crossing her arms. Perry replied coldly, “She’s leaving. I can’t change that.” “That’s a shame,” Sarah said disappointingly, ‘She was a good roller too.”

  
“That’s not that we should focus on.” Perry interrupted. He looked back and forth between Kevin and Sarah, “ right now what’s important is we find a replacement for Beca.” Perry then looked at the boy sitting on the ground, “Kevin,” the sound of his name made the boy sit up straight, and look his captain directly in the eye. “Send the word out that we are looking for another member.” Kevin gave a single nod, “Will do,” he said with a deep, but calm voice. Perry turned back to Sarah, “We hold tryouts in three months, and I expect the best and egar, got it?” Sarah also gave a relaxed solute with two fingers, “You got it boss.”

  
Perry gave a confident smile, “good, I expect to something good in three months.” Perry then made his way back towards the exit. He opened the door, then looked back at the two inklings. He stared at them for a moment, thinking to himself. Until he finally spoke up, “Hey!” he shouted, the two of them looked at their captain, the sudden yell startling both of them. “Don’t be surprised if any of them say they’re gonna show up, but turn around and not help at all.” Before Sarah or Kevin could reply, Perry left the room, slamming the door shut. The slamming also startled them again. After Perry left, the couple looked at each other for a moment. All they did was simply shrug before going back to their phones.

 

-

 

The trio of Shark Force had met together three months later in the spring. The team decided to hold the tryouts at Kelp Dome, as it was not in use at the time for turf wars.  
They had set up a table that they sat at, with clip boards, and notes on what to keep an eye out for with the new recruits. Tryouts were about to begin, and Perry was finishing explaining to the the other two what to observe.

  
“Remember, make sure they are interested, there’s a good chance they can just leave us if they don’t care.” “You got it big guy,” Sarah said slyly. Kevin only nodded. “Sarah, go see who is first for tryouts, we got some new recruits to find.”

 

-

 

Perry put his head in his hands and groaned. Sarah was leaning on her one arm, with her hand in her cheek, and she looked extremely bored and impatient. Kevin was flipping through pages, who also seemed tired. Perry spoke out of the silence, frustrated and close to yelling, “Isn’t there a single inkling that is competent to do and follow through with anything!?!” The two inklings sat up straight at the captain’s anger. They then instantly tried to calm him down.

  
“Don’t worry about it Perry,” Sarah said, “we still got one more on the list.” Perry snapped back, but slightly more calm, “they better be competent.” Kevin spoke up, “this has to be the one for you Perry. I think it is.” Perry sneered,”Well not everything is the miracle it may play out to be.” Kevin replied, “I’ll go bring in the last squid.” Kevin got up from his seat. Sarah stood up from her said quickly, “I’ll go with ya.” Kevin made no objections, and neither did Perry. So the two inklings made their way from the table, and towards where the final participant was waiting.

  
Before they could, Sarah grabbed Kevin by his collar, and pulled him aside. The sudden grab caught the boy off guard.

 

‘What was that for?” the boy questioned rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry big guy, but I need to talk to you.” What for?” The inkling asked again.

  
“Perry’s been pretty tense, even before these tryouts.” Kevin replied, “yeah, I know that, we’ve been practicing with him. Weren't you there when he had us stay for extra practicing?” Sarah seemed to ignore her friend’s words, and continued, “Well, he has been tense even outside of practice.” Kevin put his left hand on his hip, “gee I wonder if it’s because Beca left the team.” Sarah gave him a punch in the shoulder, “haha, very funny ya goof.”

  
“But I think that’s only part of it.” the inkling continued. ‘I think something else is bugging him. Remember what he said when Beca left in the winter? Uhhmm….what was it again? ‘Don’t be shocked when they don’t do work?’”

  
“Don’t be surprised if any of them say they’re gonna show up, but turn around and not help at all?” Kevin recited. ‘Sarah sepied, perked up at his help, “Yeah, that’s it.” “What about that?” the boy asked. “I feel like Perry isn’t tellin’ us something.”

  
Kevin crossed his arms, “and why are you not asking him yourself?” Sarah gave a heavy sigh. “Come on Kevin, you know that I always tell you what's going on. Besides” Sarah said, leaning in to whisper, “You know Perry and how he gets when you ask about his personal life.” Kevin then sighed, ‘yeah, I guess you're right.” Sarah smiled, “You know I am,” and then booped him in the nose.

  
Sarah began to walk away from her close friend. “Come on, we can’t keep both of them waiting, Tattoos.” Kevin snapped out of his confused state, and ran after the girl. Sarah giggled, and turned back around to keep walking.

  
The two inklings walked around the corner to the group of empty chairs, expect for one. The two inklings looked to see who it was, but when they saw her, their eyes widened.

 

-

 

_“What’s taking them so long?”_ Perry thought to himself, irritated. However, he did not have to wait too much longer. Sarah and Kevin did return to their captain, eventually. “What took you two so long? There’s one left,” he asked frustratedly. “Sorry Perry,” Sarah replied apologetically, “we had to make sure things were ready before the tryout.” The captain simply groaned in frustration, but let them slide by. The two inklings then sat back down in their seats. Shortly after, the final inkling came up to greet the captain.

  
Perry perked up, seeing who it was, “Kimberly eh? What brings you here?” Kim responded, sounding like she had sugar injected into her veins. “Well, I want a new team!” “Yeah, but why?” Sarah questioned. Kim gave an exaggerated sigh, “why do I have to explain everything? Can I just show you what I can do?”

  
Perry sternly responded, “We already know what you can do Kim, but we what to know what makes you different from the others.” Sarah and Kevin stared at the captain, who suddenly changed his tone to be more relaxed, as if what happened before never occured.

  
Kim took a moment to take in what the captain said, she seemed to have frozen when Perry denied her request. She snapped out of her state, then took a deep breath, “Well, to put it simple, I can provide the positivity this team needs to take on any task! Sure most most inklings would think that a Carbon Roller is a ‘bad weapon’, but I think those squids don’t realize it’s potential! I know all this seems cheesy, but it’s important to me that things are always getting better, and that we see the best possible outcome!”

  
The three other inkling simply stared at Kim after she finished, as if the were waiting for her to continue her speech, but the squid did not say anything. Perry and Kevin both wrote down on their clipboards, taking notes. Perry then looked at Sarah, and then turned to his right to see Kevin. Perry turned back to Kim. “Alright then Kim, Kevin,” he said turning to the inkling, who jumped a tad at the sudden demand for him. “Can you take Kim of to the try out area and test Kim’s strength.

  
The boy nodded, and stood up from his chair, “This way Kim.” He walked of to the opposite side of the greenhouse as the girl followed him.

  
Sarah turned to the leader, “I thought you said you didn’t want to see what she could do?” “I did,” Perry replied, much relaxed. “I’m going to add her to the team, no doubt about that.” “But why?” the girl questioned. “Simple,” Perry said, turning to face her, “She convinced me that she should be here. I thought I would reward her by letting her show off.”

  
Sarah then turned back to Kim splatting dummies, and Kevin simply watching. She then turned to the captain. “By the way,” Perry began, “do you know why Kim left Splat Bombers?” Sarah replied, almost instantly, “oh yeah, she posted it online, said that the team never practiced, saying she was always left in the dark. You didn’t know about that?” Perry shook his head, “uh, no.” Sarah laughed, giving him a light punch on Perry’s shoulder. “We should get you an account, and maybe even a team account to keep tabs on our games.” Perry laughed, “Yeah, we shall see.”


	12. Bond of Love

*Present Day*

 

  
Terry walked slid through the door to the cafe with a huge, dopey grin. Beca and the rest of the team noticed it as he sat down next to Gabbriella. Terry didn’t say anything when he got in his seat, he put his hand in on his chin to lean on. “Someone’s quiet for a day,” Ray commented taking a sip from his cup.

  
Beca the reached across the table to pull of his tinted shades. Terry didn’t respond as his captain pulled them off of his face. Terry’s eyes were almost as if he was half asleep, and day dreaming. Beca finally took the first step to what the rest of them were wondering, “What’s going on big guy?” Terry gave a long sigh, “Oh, nothin’ much. Just saw the most gorgeous girl in the world.”

  
“Ahhhhh,” Ray said giving a devilish grin as he leaned closer to Terry, “Who’s the gal?” “Kimberley.” Beca almost choked on her coffee. She covered her mouth and swallowed before speaking. “Kim!?” Terry sighed again, “yeah, what a gal.” "You didn't notice her when we fought Shark Force?" Ray asked confused. "Never saw her in that battle," Terry replied from his bliss like state. He drifted back into his fantasy. “You know,” Beca began before she was interrupted by Terry, who snapped back into reality and sat up straight.

  
“How do I introduce myself to her?” Gabby turned to the excited boy in confusion, squinching her eyes. “You mean that you haven’t even properly introduced?” Well, no, Terry replied sounding disappointment. Gabby sat up and took a deep inhale through her nose. She then turned to Terry again. “Look Terry, I can tell how you feel, so I will help you and Kim become the perfect couple!” Terry looked shocked at Gabby, “Really? You, of all squids?” Gabby smiled bright and bold, “yep! I’ve been waiting for this moment ever since joining! Come on, let’s get you two love birds down the tunnel.” Terry shouted while spreading his arms to pump them, “The power of love!”

  
Terry grabbed his tinted shades that sat in front of Beca. Then, the two inklings ran out of the cafe, excited to start their quest.

 

-

 

Gabriella was pacing back and forth, writing on a clipboard while Terry was peeking around the corner. “Are you sure Kim comes here?” he questioned the sniper. “Positive,” Gabby replied, not looking up from the board. “I saw a post once of her and Shark Force here once.” “If you say so,” Terry responded going back to Gabby.

  
He walked up, swinging his arms, “so what do I do when she gets here? Do I just go up to her?” Gabby snapped up from her writing with a stern look, “Absolutely not!” Terry stopped swaying his arms. “You can’t just walk up to her, first impressions are everything to keep her interested in you.” Terry questioned, “So what do I do?” Gabby gave a sly grin, “Well,as the love expert, I know exactly what to do.”

  
“It’s easy,” she began, “When she gets here, you need to make an accident happen, something to grab her attention, and then, do something charming back to get her even more interested. Then you make small talk with her, and talk about yourself, girls like to hear a man who has a good profile.” Gabriella continued to give her advice, until Terry gazed back to the spot, and saw Kim sitting on the stone ring around a tree. Terry looked back at Gabby, who was still rambling. “Uuh,” he tried to interrupt her, “She’s here.”

  
Gabby snapped her head to Terry. He thought she might have cracked her neck it was so fast. She started at the boy, motionless and soundless. Then yelled suddenly, “What are you waiting for? Go get her my dude!” Gabby the bushed Terry around the corner and ran back to cover. Terry looked at Kim, then took a deep breath in, and out. He flipped his sunglasses down and whispered to himself, “Showtime.”

  
Terry stood up straight as he marched over to Kim, looking as confident as he could. _“Alright, what to make an accident…”_ the boy pondered to himself. He slowed down his walking to think, but snapped his fingers at his plan. _“It’ll be perfect!”_

  
As Terry approached the sitting girl, he pretended to trip on something, even though there was nothing there. Terry hit the ground right on his face with a thud. It seemed to have worked. Kim perked up and saw the inkling land flat on his face, her eyes widened. “Oh my goodness, are you ok?” Kim questioned, leaning forward from her seat. Terry replied by rolling over on his side to face the other inkling. He gave a bright, charming smile, “never better.” Kim gave a light gasp, almost covering her mouth with her hands. “Oh no you’re bleeding.” Terry continued to smile, almost oblivious to Kim’s concern and only tried to pose more charmingly. He spoke again, “Why yes, I am bleeding for a true-.” Tery was interrupted by Kim. “No like, you are physically bleeding.”

  
Terry then gave a confused look. Still on the ground, he took his arm and wiped it across his face. Sure enough, a red stain was smeared across his sleeve. He looked at it for a moment, and he only said, “huh.”

  
Suddenly Terry shouted, finally feeling the burn of the cut across his cheek. “I didn’t feel anything when I fell. He then went back to Kim, almost forgetting she was there. The panicked boy asked her, “How bad is it?” Kim stuttered for a moment, a little confused with Terry’s sudden yelling.

  
“Well,” Kim stated, “ It could be worse. Here,” She said as she leaned into her bag. Kim pulled out her phone to show Terry his reflection. Terry saw the cut was on his left cheek. It was small, but still noticeable. “I have a few tissues if you want to use them to wipe it off.”

  
Kim handed the cut inkling a few tissues. Terry gladly took the and patted his cut. “Thank you,” he said more calmly. “Don’t worry,” Kim smiled gleefully. The smile then reminded what Terry was doing. The smile sent him back into his dream like state, and almost forgot where he was. Kim spoke, snapping him out of his fantasy.

  
“My name’s Kim!” She said gleefully giving a bright smile. “ I’m Terry!” the boy replied, returning a bright and confident smile. Quickly, Terry tried to think of something to do for Kim. “Here, I’ll get some ice cream for us, as a thank you for the help.” “Oh,” Kim replied, a bit surprised. “Sure! I happy for any free ice cream!”

  
Terry ran to a nearby ice cream truck, waiting in the short line. He glanced through the menu, trying to think what would Kim like. _“Can’t go wrong with chocolate I guess.”_ he thought to himself as he tapped his chin. As he browsed the menu, he heard someone whisper f. “Psst, Terry.” Terry looked around trying to see who had called him. He before he could ask who called him, a small pebble hit the back of his head. “Ow!” Terry muttered to himself as he put his hand to where the pebble hit. He turned around, looking to see who did it. Then, he heard them again, “Down here.”

  
Terry looked down to see a bush, flipping his glasses and setting them on his head. He looked down, and peeking from that bush was Gabriella. “Oh no Gabby! You’ve been turned into a bush!” Gabby instantly scowled and threw another pebble at Terry, didn’t even notice as he was laughing at his own stupid joke. “Be quiet you idiot! This is my cover.”

  
Gabby continued as Terry finally stopped laughing. “Look, I’m here to tell you, you gotta make a move soon, ice cream is not going to win her over like that, and you’ll need to ask her out eventually. Got it?” Terry then questioned her, “but what do I say?” “Simple,ask her about herself. Girls love talking about themselves.” Terry looked back confused, “I thought you said to talk about myself?” gabby snapped, “I did but we gotta speed things up now! Besides, I was looking over the statistics and I made a mistake, alright.”

  
Gabriella then gave a confident smile, “You got this Terry, it’s your calling!” With that, the sniper went pack into hiding. Terry looked away, not noticing Gabby stumble out of the shrub.

  
The inkling walked up to the counter. The worked looked at Terry boredly. “Can i get two chocolate cones, my good sir? And might I request to keep in nice and clean, for the ladies,” he added, leaning in closer to the worker. He didn’t say anything. He simply got the boy his ice cream. Terry pulled a handful of coins out of his pocket and tossed them onto the counter. “Keep the change my kind good sir.” Terry grabbed the cones, and headed back Kim. The cahier sighed, and continued his work.

  
Terry carried the two cones back to Kim, he hummed to himself a tune to himself, as he bobbed his head, causing his glasses to fall back onto his face. He tried to think of what to say when the time finally came. While he was daydreaming, he almost tripped again. However this time, he was able to catch himself. He walked backward sto see what he almost tripped over, seeing what he got caught on. But it was nothing.

  
Unfortunately, he didn’t see the ring Kim was sitting next on. “Terry, behind you!” It was too late for the inkling. He fell backwards, dropping both of the ice creams as he landed on his back. Terry and Kim both looked at the ice creams slowly melt into the dirt.

  
Terry didn’t say anything as he simply sighed. Kim approached the upset boy. “I’m sorry Terry, but I gotta go, my team is doing training in a few minutes.” Terry shot up straight and quickly said, “Wa-wait Kim. I need to ask you something.” “huh?” Kim said surprised as Terry pulled her closer. Terry looked slightly down, since she was closer He pulled his shades off, “I’m just going to say this bluntly, but would you like to go out with me?” Kim gasped, and then smiled. Terry, that’s so sweet of you.” Terry smiled, ear to ear, happy to hear what she said. Kim continued, “But I already have a girlfriend.”

  
Terry mouth was open, but it was in some kind of half smile. “I thought you would already knew that. I post about her all the time,” Kim said apologetically. “I’m sorry Terry, you’re really nice and I appreciate the ice cream offer, but I have to go.” Kim slipped out of Terry’s grip, which loosened up after the announcement. She ran off, heading, leavening Terry by himself.

  
Terry didn’t say anything. He fell to his knees and supported himself with his hands on the ground after Kim was out of sight. He stayed motionless. Not saying a single word. He heard for steps approach him, but he did not bother to look to see who it was. The sound approached right next to him. It was Gabriella. She squatted down to talk to him.  
“Umm,” she said, think of what to say. “How ya taking it buddy?” Terry still didn’t move an inch. Gabby gave a concerned look to her friend, then a weak smile. She grabbed Terry by the waist to straighten him back up. His face was bright. His eyes were wide, and he and a frown right next to his cut. Which surprised Gabby. She had never seen Terry frown and be so upset. “Hey, come on big guy. Where’s that Terry charm and glee I know?” she said, trying to cheer him up. Terry took a breath in and out through his nose, but still no response.

  
Gabby reached into her pocket. “I ran into Beca before i came here. She told me about Kim. Seems the girl told you first before I could.” Gabriella pulled her hand out of her pocket. “But she wanted you to have this. And handed it to Terry.

  
Terry saw it and looked at it. Gabby held out a small, golden colored necklace. On the end of it was an ammonite shaped charm. The boy slowly reached out to grab it. He held it up to look at it. As he did, he noticed a small button on the side of it. Upon pushing it opened up the shell. Inside was a picture of Ink Tide after the first all met. He saw the four of them, Himself, Beca, Ray, and Gabriella, all smiling, except for Ray.

  
He looked up to his friend, and sniffed. Gabby gave a compacinate smile, which was rare for her. Without saying anything Terry quickly embraced his friend. Gabby didn’t say anything either. The two simply hugged each other.


	13. The Glowing Sky

It was 9:29. The stars shined bright over the city, creating a beautiful glow over everything. The sky was clear of any clouds, and was almost a deep blue instead of the usual black night sky. The air was clear and warm. The perfect time for Splatfest.

 

-

 

Lex and Aqua sat next to each other, giving eachother company. Lex sat leaning back against the wall, her mask pulled down, while Aqua was hunched over, looking on her phone. Lex was rambling, Aqua simply listened to her, captain. “I don’t know how I never noticed this new stubborn Rip,” She said, thinking back to earlier in the week.  
The two had an argument about splatfest teams. Ripley wanted to have everyone on the same team so they could dominate and win splatfest together. The others felt it would go against the spirit of splatfest. Let’s just say Ripley was not too happy about what the other three decided on in the end.

  
“How come he has just been acting like this now? Have you seen him like this before?” Aqua quickly turned her head to look at Lex, think she was mad at her. “Oh, um, no. I haven't really noticed before.” Lex sighed, “It’s hard to know Aqua. You’re so fragile that even Rip knows not to mess with you.” Aqua sulked again, her shoulders fell forward. Lex looked at the girl and pulled her closer to her. “Hey, don’t worry about it, you did nothing wrong.” Aqua simply groaned in response.

  
Lex tried to get the other girl’s mind off, and back to splatfest “Hey, see that inkling on team flight? The girl with those headphones.” Aqua nodded, with a little “uh-huh.” Lex continued, “she’s got an Octobrush. You should leave her to me, as your Slosher is not the best close range,but if you can out range her, do it. And do you see that guy with the Hydra splattling??” Lex continued. “He can out range both of us, but if you play smart, and attack him before he can fire again.”

  
“If we do that,” Lex rambled, “Then we got this in the bag!” She gave a bright confident smile. The shy inkling tried to give one in return. Aqua then asked, “What about the other two?” Lex looked around, trying to see who else there was. She saw two more boys, one with a rapid blaster, and the other had a Splattershot. Lex replied hastily, “Watch out for the burst bomb and splash down combo from the Splattershot, and stay out of the Rapid blaster’s death zone. Easy stuff.” Aqua groaned again, but Lex paid no mind to it.

  
She jumped onto her feet, and extended her hand to the girl still sitting. “Now let’s go, we go ourselves a Splatfest to win.” Aqua hesitated for a moment before slowly reaching out to grab her captain’s hand. Lex swiftly pulled Aqua off her feet, catching her off guard as she squeaked. Once on her feet, Aqua panted at the sudden heart rush. “I forgot how strong you can be,” Aqua giggled weakly. Lex laughed, “Yep, all that training certainly paid off!” she boasted. Aqua gave a weak, but genuine smile to her captain.

 

-

 

The battle took place on Moray Towers. Both teams were back and forth for control of the map.  
The tall inkling was making her way to the center of the map after respawning for the fourth time. “That Hydra Splattling really does sting,” Aqua thought, while swimming back to the rest of her team. She saw Lex, who was on the high platform right before the center drop to the middle. The captain noticed her teammate, and quickly went to speak with her. “There you are,” Lex said, but not angry at Aqua.

  
The girl pulled her mask down and began her plan, “ok, so here’s the idea, that Octo brush is going to try to come up and splat us, all you gotta do is stop that brush, simple!” Aqua replied, simply by nodding. “Good, you got this girl,” she gave a proudful smile to Aqua before pulling her mask back up, and getting to work. Aqua tuned to the decline next to her, waiting for the Octo brush. She covered some blue splotches of ink while she did.

  
Then, the shy inkling heard something behind her and Lex. She turned around, but no one was there. Then suddenly, the Rapid blaster user popped up from the left wall flank. Aqua quickly went to slosh him, trying to keep her friend safe. The blaster’s attention went to the tall girl. He tried to land a direct hit on her but she was just out of range. The slosher girl was able to stay out of range to be in the”kill zone”, and was able to win the fight by splattling the boy.

  
Lex heard the commotion behind her and turned around to investigate. She saw a blue squid flying back to the enemy spawn, and Aqua, who has splotches of blue ink on her clothes and face. The girl tuned to her captain. “Nice job staying out of range!” she complimented. Aqua gave a small, but happy smile. Suddenly, the shy inkling felt something whip her back, as she was quickly splatted by the Octo, and she flew back to their spawn.

  
Aqua respawned, a little dizzy at the number of times she respawned. She fell to the ground on her spawn pad, trying to shake the feeling. Lex respawned no long after. She shook her head. The girl was about to jump right back to battle and figure out what to do, but then she noticed the tall girl sitting next to her. She crouched down to see what was going on.

  
“You ok Aqua?” She asked, concerned with her teammate, who wasn’t looking too good. Aqua was still dizzy, and spoke with breaks. “Oh, no… I’m just… just...spinning….” She then felt vomit come up her throat. She clenched her stomach with one hand, and covered her mouth with the other. The shy inkling then swallowed, not wanting to make a mess. She coughed, “sorry,” she said meekly.

  
Lex was surprised. She had never seen Aqua look so terrible before. The captain simply stared in shock. She didn’t know what to say, so she said what came to mind. “Aqua...I… I’m sorry.” Aqua didn’t look at her captain, she simply stared at the ground. “No, you did nothing wrong. I just let you down.” the shy girl pouted.

  
“No, Aqua.” Lex boldly stated. “I’m the one that pushed you too hard. You’re getting sick because I’m making you work so hard, that I’m not even making sure that you are ok.” Aqua still pouted to herself, “I can’t even listen to your orders of taking care of that Octo Brush. I might as well go, I’m not cut out for this…”

  
“No you’re are!” Lex shouted. Aqua looked up at the captain. Lex looked at the girl, and saw the fear in her wide, deep blue eyes. Lex took a heavy sigh. Lex then made a choice, as she sat down next to her teammate. Confused, Aqua asked, “What are you doing?” she said the words in between sniffs and wiping her eyes. Lex responded, “I’m sorry for snapping at you like that, but I’m going to sit with you until you feel better.” Aqua the sat up in surprise. “Bu-but what about the game?” Aqua questioned. Lex replied, turning to her friend, and pulling her mask off, “That doesn’t matter, your my friend, and you’re more important than any Splatfest. I can’t stand know my friend is hurt.”

  
Aqua stuttered for a moment, as water formed in her eyes. Then, Aqua began to ball as she cried aloud. She buried her face into Lex’s shoulder, continuing to cry. Lex pulled one arm around her to hug her, and another to put her on the back, lightly. Lex began to tear up too, but she didn’t cry out loud like Aqua. Lex didn’t say anything, and let Aqua do as she wanted.

  
The tall girl leaned off her friend’s shoulder, her eyes were bloodshot, and her face was wet from tears. She sniffed, before giving a very weak smile, “th-thank you Lex. It means alot to me.Lex smiled back, before embracing her friend, “I’m glad you’re feeling better, and trust me, I wouldn’t have gotten here without you.” The two silently hugged for some time.

  
They let go of each other eventually, and Lex smiled. “Hey, you got that Rapid blaster off of me.” Aqua sniffed again, also smiling again, “y-eah. I-I did.” Lex looked across the highway from the top of the towers. She spoke calmly, The view sure is beautiful at night.” Aqua turned to see what Lex was looking at. She saw the clear, starful sky, and the neon lights of splastfest join together to create a wonderful glow. Aqua smiled as the lights glew in her eyes. “Yeah, they are beautiful.”


	14. Mako Mayhem

Ray walked through the isles of MakoMart by himself. He was grumpy as usual, but he was actually upset at himself. They boy had planned to get up extra early today, but he slept through all of his alarms.

  
What was so important for Ray that he wanted to wake up super early? His favorite game series “Squidbound” was getting a sequel. Ray was a huge fan, of the first game and after watching all of the trailers, it seemed promising. He wanted to get up early so he made sure to get a copy. However, he was upset, thinking he missed his chance, and the game would be sold out.

  
The inkling made his way to the electronics section of the store, mumbling to himself, hands in his pockets. When he got there, he noticed the long line at the register. He noticed everyone pretty much had a copy of Squidbound 2. Ray gave a sigh. _“I got nothing to lose, might as well check.”_ he said in his head.  
Ray walked back into the gaming isle, and to his dismay yet again, the spot it was supposed to be in was completely empty. He gave a disappointed sigh before shoving his hands in his pockets and grumbling to himself.

  
However, something caught the boy’s eye as he walked out of the isle. I was an unclaimed copy of Squidbound 2! Someone had moved it to another shelf and left it there. Ray gave an excited smile, as he quickly raced over to the game. As he went to grab the game, a second hand also grabbed it at the same time he did. He followed the dark hand to see a short girl with twin tale tentacles, who was standing on her toes trying to reach the shelf.

  
Ray looked down at the girl, while she looked back at him. Ray was the first to speak, “What do you think you’re doing?’ he said, sounding obviously irritated. The girl responded, as the two began to tug back and forth on the game. “What are YOU doing? I’m simply trying to buy a game. Now let go!” Ray retaliated, “Well, I’m not going to let a child tell me what to do.” Ray pulled on the game as hard as he could, which caught the girl off balance, and she fell on her back.

  
The boy huffed, dusted off the game, and went to get in line for the register. He hummed a tune to himself as he did, excited to get home and start playing. Unfortunately, the game was swiped from his hand, as the girl was able to snatch it off of him. “Hey!” Ray yelled as he watched the girl run off with the game, and he began to chase after her.  
The girl was fast for how short she was, which surprised the boy as he chased after her. She looked behind to see Ray hot in pursuit. Suddenly, the girl stepped on one of her tentacles, and tripped, falling on her face, and dropping the game. Ray grinned, _"Just my luck!”_ he thought to himself. He ran past the fallen girl, and scooped up the game. He watched her look up, and taunted her as he ran away.

  
Ray looked back at the game, inspecting it to make sure it was ok. He gave a sigh of relief, seeing that it wasn’t broken. Then he turned back to see if the girl was still chasing him. Surprisingly, she was nowhere to be found. He slowed down, going to a walking pace _“I should probably head to the front registers, they are shorter than the one back there,”_ he said to himself.

  
Ray was admiring the game, looking at the simple, yet iconic look of the cover and logo, and flipping it to the back to see what it said. He began to remember the time he played the first game, the spin-off one, and even the one on his phone. He didn’t realize it, but he was smiling.

  
As he walked past one of the isles, the girl returned, jumping out and shouting. Ray jumped in fear at the sudden scare, he tried to run into the opposite isle, but he tripped of a wire that was incovinetly placed. He figured the girl had planned the trap for him. The girl scooped up the game Ray dropped. “I may be little, but I’m Kiki, and nobody calls me a child.” Kiki then ran off as Ray was able to get back on his feet.

  
Ray could feel himself steaming, as he once again began chasing the girl. As he continued to run through the store, he noticed they began to chace into the toy isle, and it gave him an idea.

  
Ray turned down an isle, halting the chace on Kiki. He searched the isles until he found what he was looking for, a large ball, and a jump rope. Ray took the two, and ran to the next isle. She knew Kiki would be coming down this way to get to the registers. So he set up his trap. He tied the jump rope to each end of the isle, making sure it was nice and tight, but loose enough on the rope as well. The inkling then took the ball and placed it directly in front of him, putting the rope between him and the ball. Still holding onto the ball, Ray began to pull the ball back towards him, and preparing the slingshot.

  
Ray snickered to himself as he waited for Kiki to turn down the last isle. _“I can’t wait to see the look on her face.”_ The inkling had a huge, evil smile on his face, but the boy didn’t even know.

  
Then, she came. Kiki came skipping down the isle, humming a tune to herself. She then noticed Ray contraption, and stopped her gleeful spirit. “Suprise!” Ray exclaimed.  
Kiki tried to escape, but Ray already let go of the ball, sending it flying straight for the small girl. It smacked Kiki in the back of the head, knocking her onto the floor, again. Ray watched Kiki throw the game into the air after getting hit. He ran after the game, trying to catch it. He jumped to catch, and made the landing. “Haha! Now that’s how I do it at Ink Tide,” He taunted, the continued running.

  
Ray continued to run. _"I’m not taking any more chances, I’m going straight for the register.”_ The boy continued to run. He continued to run, and once again checked the game to make sure it was ok. However, that was the boys mistake.

  
As Ray continued to gawk at the game, he failed to notice a small girl running next to him. “You enjoying that cover?” Kiki asked Ray. The boy seemed like he was in a trance, and forgot about the girl, but Ray replied anyway, “Yeah….” “I think they should change the color of the case, if you as me.” the girl said. Ray asked, “What color?” Teal!”

  
Ray was confused, but didn’t have time to react. Suddenly, Kiki slammed a bucket of paint on his head, and dumping teal pain all of Ray. The hit from the paint can caused him to drop the game. Kiki grabbed it before it even touched the ground, and ran off with the game.

  
The inkling boy pulled the can off of his head. Luckily his safari hat was able to keep the paint out of his eyes, but the rest of his his clothes were not so lucky. They were covered in teal paint, from head to toe. Ray took of his safari hat and shook as much of the paint off as he could. “Little brat,” Ray complained in his head. He placed his hat back on his head, and began to think of a plan.

  
He knew it wouldn’t be long before she made it to the register in the grocery section. “The grocery section! That’s right past the cleaning supplies!” Ray exclaimed in his head. Ray had an idea, and he knew the result was not going to be pretty, but he had to work fast.

 

-

 

Ray set the final touches to hsi trap up, and luckily, it wasn’t that hard either. He took a bottle of soap, and sprayed it across the ground, making sure every in was covered. The soap was almost invisible on the shiny, tile floor. Ray went over the plan in his head, “So Kiki will come through here and slip on the soap, and I will chase to make sure she doesn't see the soap. It’s foolproof.” Ray disgatted the bottle of soap so the girl couldn’t see it either. Unfortunately for the boy, Kiki was already running down towards him.

  
Kiki saw Ray standing out in the open, with his back towards her. Kiki got an idea, then began to run as fast as she could, and tackled Ray, as a form of revenge. The boy felt the short girl tackle him to the ground. The two inklings slipped on the soap and both fell over.

  
Both of them slid across the floor, trying to stop. The two then slid into a shelf of soda cans, causing all of the drinks to fall of the shelf. Some busted open, others simply tumbled to the ground.

Ray and Kiki popped up from the pile of cans, a little covered in the carbonated drinks. They both saw the game sitting a few feet in front of them. The two inklings then looked at each other for a moment, until Kiki stuck her tongue out at Ray. That started the race to the game.

  
The two were both about to grab the game, until a third and swiped the it before either one of them. They followed the hand to a man, who clearly seemed angry. They both saw the tag on his outfit that read “Manager”. The two inklings gulped.

  
“Do either of you care to explain what happened here?!” Kiki and Ray simplified stared in silence. Both of them tried to speak, but the manager interrupted, “Well!?” Kiki cleared her throat. “Well, you see, the shelving system is pretty flimsy, and these cans can slide around really easily” Ray could tell the girl was trying to act calm, but he could see the nervousness in the girl.

  
“Oh yeah, then explain this.” The manager help up an open bottle of soap. Ray began to become embarrassed, started sweating, and tried to look away to avoid the problem. “He did it,” Kiki said, pointing to the boy. Ray shot her a very angered expresion. He was about to flip off at her, but the manager interrupted again. “I don’t care who did it! Either you clean it up, or your paying for it!” The manager then stormed of, leaving the two inklings to decide what to do.

  
Ray looked down at Kiki, and Kiki looked back. The boy gave a heavy sigh, he was about to speak, but was quickly interrupted by the girl kicking him. Even through his moto boots, Ray could still feel it. “Ah! What the hake was that for!?” Kiki once again stuck her tongue out again and argued, “You got me in trouble!” Ray argued back, “I got you in trouble!? You got ME in trouble!”

  
“You’re the one who took the game off of me at first!”

  
“You’re the one who made me chase after you when you snatched it off of me!”

  
“Yeah well, you shot a ball at my head!”

  
“You drowned me in paint!”

  
“Shrimp Brain!”

  
“Brat!”

  
The two inklings angerlied stared at each other, grinding their teeth. If Ray didn’t have self control, he would have probably punched the Kiki as hard as he could, but for once, he let it slide.

  
Suddenly, the manager came back, with cleaning supplies. “When you two stop bickering, you can begin to clean up the mess you made.” He dropped the supplies in front of the two inklings. “You better get started.”

  
Ray and Kiki groaned as the boy grabbed a mop and Kiki began to grab a trash bag. Ray sighed to himself, _“Why do I keep letting this happen to me?”_


	15. Skate Night: Side A

Gil and Duncan led Honey and Fira through a pair of sliding doors. The two girls had blindfolds around their eyes. The girls could hear retro sounding music, and could see colors glare through the blindfolds. Gil was guiding Fira, and Duncan helped Honey. The two slowly pushed the girls until they got passed the front entrance.

“Almost there,” Gil said, excitement slowly building up in him. The two boys let go of the girls, and they stood in front of the two, confused inklings. “Take em off now!” Gil exclaimed! Honey untied her mask as Fira simply pulled hers off her face. The both were met with Gil and Duncan posing, and a place they have heard of, but never been to.

“Whitefin Skate Rink?” Honey questioned, sounding disappointed. Gil still smiled as Duncan slowly frowned. “You brought us out to a washed up skate rink of fo fun?” 

“Yeah!” Gil said with glee, “Me and Duncan use to always come up here when were where kids! It’s a great place!” 

Fira grumbled, “They charge 20 coins for a bar of chocolate.” Gil chuckled, “That doesn’t matter! We can still go skating! That’s what this place is for.” Honey spoke, slightly less than her usual positive attitude.

“I’m with Fira on this one Gil, this place kinda sucks.” Duncan spoke, from seemingly out of nowhere. “Come on guys, I’m sure we can all have fun here!” Fira gave a sigh, as the air was muffled through her mask, “Look Gil, this place is only a block from my home. I’m getting a drink and leaving. You can have your fun and games.” Fira then left without a word, leaving the other three inklings there. Gil and Duncan turned to each other, before turning back to an obviously upset Honey with her arms crossed. They stood in silence for a second before she spoke. 

“I’m stuck here with you cause my house is too far to walk back, but I refuse to go skating with you two lovers.” “But we’re not gay,” Duncan said back. Gil also replied, “I dated Lex for months.”

Honey was getting angry, “I don’t care if you are gay! You act like a couple!” Honey puffed, and went to sit down, crossing her arms.

The two boys looked at eachother, and gave a heavy sigh. “Looks like it’ll be just like old times,” Gil said, trying to make light of the situation. Duncan looked up at his friend and laughed lightly, “I guess so,” the smaller inkling said, “let’s get you some skates and get you out there!” Gil similed that his energy came back. He nodded as the two inklings went to pick up a pair of skates.

 

Duncan didn’t get a pair, it was mostly for Gil. The two use to hang out at Whitefin Skate Rink long before they started a team. The purple tentacle inkling use to always try to help Gil find a girlfriend, and he would give him tips on what to do. 

Duncan was giving encouraging words to his friend as the older inkling strapped on his skates. Gil was smiling confidently, as Duncan encouraged him. He looked at all of the inklings skating around the rink, finding who to flirt with first. The stood up from the chair and skated out onto the rink.

Honey watched from the distance, grumbling to herself. She had her hands in her face and elbows on the table.  _ “Can’t believe those two can have fun here.”  _ Honey grumbled in her head. She wanted to join them, but she was too angry to do anything. 

As she mumbled to herself, her stomach growled loudly. Honey looked at the canteen to see how much anything was,  _ “100 coins for a basket of fries!?”  _ she exclaimed in her mind. SHe reached into her pocket, but unfortunately, she didn’t bring her purse. The oranged tentacle girl gave a sigh, as her stomach continued to rumble.

Honey then saw a pair of squids pass her, carrying a bunch of food with them. The one girl was really short, with light blue tentacles, and the other was a squid with green tentacles, and he had big, round glasses.

Honey didn’t pay attention to them, she was looking at the delicious food they were carrying. A salted pretzel, a basket of fries, a warm coffee, a milkshake, and a towering plate of nachos. The girl’s eyes sparkled, until the sound of her stomach snapped her out of her trance. The two other inklings sat down in the booth next to her. Honey then looked back at the rink to see Duncan, simply watching Gil skate around.

Honey raced from her seat. She sneaked under the table the other two sat at, and tied their shoes together. She was far too lucky to not be caught.

Then she ran right up to the boy. “Hey I need to see you real quick!” Honey said swiftly. Duncan didn’t have time to say anything before he was swiftly pulled around the collar by Honey as she pulled him back to the booth. He gagged as she pulled the boy back, but Honey didn’t seem to notice. The two sat down at the table, Duncan coughing from the sudden choking. 

“What was that for?!” he asked irritated, throwing his arms into the air. Honey put her finger up to his mouth to shush him. The two sat there in silence for a shot moment before Honey whispered to him, “are you hungry?” Duncan looked at his friend for a moment before replying. “Uhh, I guess so, why?” Honey then slid to the inside of the booth, right next to the other one. She reached her hand in between the gap, and felt around. “Honey, what are you doing!?” He was concerned for what she was doing, but the girl ignored him as she continued her search.

She felt something on her hand, and Honey swiftly pulled it towards her. The girl successfully pulled out a soft pretzel, with a few bite taken out of it. Honey laughed at her own victory. “Here, eat up!” she said tossing it across the table to her friend. It bounced around in his hand.

“B-but Honey, that’s not ok!” Honey rolled her eyes, “Come on ya big baby, it’s all in a pranksters fun!” Honey reached back into the slot and continued to feel around. Duncan only watched with the pretzel in his hand. He was frowning. 

The prankster then pulled out a small handful of nachos,  some cheese and peppers on them. Honey smiled, finally being able to satisfy her appetite. “Can you hand be a few napkins Duncan?”

The boy reached for the napkins provided on the table, and handed them to his friend. “This still isn’t a good idea. What are you gonna do if they catch you?” The girl laughed to herself as she decided the napkins and placed the nachos on it. I’m the master prankster Duncan! I’ll never get caught!” Honey licked the cheese off of her hands. She took a nacho, and proudly ate it, satisfying her hunger.

Duncan ground again, realizing he wasn’t going to win this argument. He looked down at the pretzel he was holding.the boy gave a disappointed sigh before taking a bite of it himself.

Honey then reached back under the divider to try and grab something else.  _ “Come on, I saw a basket of fries, where are they?”  _ She could hear the two inklings of the otherside argue on where their food was going. Honey snickered to herself as she continued to search. The prankster felt something long, and quickly pulled it out. It was just a straw from the milkshake. 

Honey grumbled, “I thought it was a fry…” she said to herself. Duncan tried to cheer the girl up. “Maybe you can taste the drink from the straw?” Honey smiled, realizing the skittish inkling was onto something. She put the straw in her mouth.

Honey’s eyes went wide and she did not look to happy. She quickly spat the straw out, and wiped her mouth. “Strawberry,” Honey said with disgust. She threw the straw across the table, and it flew past Duncan. 

The prankster once again reached through to try and grab something.  _ “Come on french fry…”  _ She stuck her tongue out as she continued to search. The girl then felt something, crispy. She smiled to herself, but quickly heard someone make some kind of sound. 

Duncan watched as Honey’s face went pale. The girl quickly grabbed the fry and slipped away before the other two could catch her. Honey pulled a huge fry. The girl’s eyes widened, “Jackpot!” she cheered. However, her victory was cut short, as she heard the girl on the opposite side shout, “Oh no you don’t!”

Honey quickly slid out of the booth seat and grabbed duncan by the arm, and began to drag him along. “Wha-what did you do!?” he asked, but Honey didn’t listen, and the two continued to run. 

When Honey ran past the booth, she say the light blue tentacle girl had fallen flat on her face. The two didn’t bother to stop, antil Honey got far enough away.

The prankster looked back at her two victims She looked at the girl on the floor, who looked back at her. She saw that her shoes were still tied together. Honey smiled, and winked at her. 

The two then raced around the corner, and out of sight of the other two inklings. 

 

It took Fira longer than it should have to find a vending machine. However, much to her dismay, someone was there, trying to pick out a drink. The girl groaned to herself. Before walking over and waiting behind a light pink tentacle boy. The girl glared at him, as he looked at all of the drinks.  _ “Come on,”  _ Fira complained in her head. 

Then, suddenly began to turn around. Fira’s eyes widened a little, and she ducked behind another vending machine. She didn’t want to be forced talk to this kid. She knew that one, he wouldn’t know her, and try to strike up a conversation, which was a big no no for Fira. Two, if they DID know she was , he would certainly, insult her and spit on her.

The boy then turned back around, and Fira gave a muffled sigh of relief. She slipped right behind him again. She noticed he was still searching for a flavor. 

_ “Seriously!? This kid still hasn’t picked a damn drink!?”  _ Fira could feel herself burning up in anger. She was about to move closer to him, but she could see he started to turn a round again.

Fira tried to duck away again, but she caught the boy’s eye. Fira knew she was caught and admitted defeat. She groaned out loud. The boy chuckled to himself. The girl became even more mad at the boy, but she knew there was nothing to do.

Fira walked out from hiding with her arms crossed, and stood behind the other boy. She slowly began to tap her foot in impatience, as the boy slowly put each coin into the machine. 

_ “Come on kid, pick up the pace!”  _ Each second felt longer than the last. The girl’s foot slowly began to tap faster. The boy finally put his last coin in Fira could feel the steam coming off of her face. The boy slowly, and heavily pushed the numbers and the machine

FIra’s patient’s was slowly wearing down.  _ “Come on come! I hate waiting too long!”  _ As if the boy read his thoughts, he snapped back around and shouted, “What?!” He seemed angry, but also scarred at the same time. 

When the two made eye contact, Fira dropped her arms, and never broke eye contact  but the boy shrunk away from her. Fira took a better look at the boy. She looked directly into his pale blue eyes. She could see the fear in them, it was painfully obvious. He was a little chubby too.

While Fira tried to remain cool, but she could feel her anxiety building up in her, but she was able to remain level headed. The two simply starred awkwardly at each other, until Fira crossed her arms broke the silence, trying to end it.

“Forget it,” she grubbled out loud through her filtered mask, making her voice sound muffled. Fira didn’t let him respond before she walked away, and headed towards the canteen, leaving the boy, and hoping not to talk again.

_ “Ugh, why does this keep happening to me?”  _ Fira questioned in her head. She felt around in her pockets to see if she had spare coins to pay for something at the canteen.

As she did, she could hear footsteps behind her, so she swiftly turned around to see who was following her. She snapped her whole body instantly to see her follower, it was the boy from the vending machine. He looked more eager than before.  _ “What does this kid want now?” _

“I didn’t mean anything,” she said with an unpleasant tone. “You don’t have to follow me.” Fira that yelled at herself,  _ “Damn it! Say it right!”  _

The boy spoke, “Oh, no, I wasn’t trying to follow you!” he shook his head, and waved his arms dismissively. “I-I was just... on my way to the canteen myself!” Fira raised an eyebrow. She could tell he was lying, but didn’t care. She deadpanned, “Sure.” 

“I know you think I was staring at you, so it doesn’t matter what you say.” Fira tried to end the conversation by trying to push him away with words. “You mean weren’t staring at me?” the pink haired inkling questioned. Fira crossed her arms and huffed, her breath came out raspy and rough.  _ ‘Can’t this kid take a hint?”  _ she mumbled in her head.

“I wanted the vending machine,” she said blankly, trying to hide her frustration. “You take too long. What am I supposed to do?” The boy gave a very awkward laugh as he scratched the back of his head. It did not help this awkward conversation.

The boy then continued, “Ah, that’s right, isn’t it... Hey, I don’t think I got your name? I’m Clarrence.” Clarrence held out his hand. “Fira,” the girl replied coldly back.

She slapped his hand as if he was going for a hi-five. Clarrnece looked, confused at the girl, and Fira realized her mistake.

“Damnit- Sorry. Okay. Here, can you just...” Fira then held out her hand instead. The pink tentacle inkling recognized the hand, and shook it. Fira gave a sigh of relief as Clarrence shrugged.  _ “Finally, something I did right.”  _ The two stood there awkwardly for sometime, as the music played in the rink, before Clarrence tried to continue the conversation.

“So, you, uh... you were going to use the vending machine after me, right? I could get you something. I still have plenty of coins left.” Fira was about to snap at the kid, but, she knew better. Besides, she couldn’t pass up a free drink.

“Okay,” she replied blankly. The two went back to the vending machines, and Clarrence gave FIra a few coins. She looked at all of the drinks and quickly found the one she was looking for, Fizzy Strawberry. Fira inserted the coins and punched in A6. The can fell and she retrieved the can. The girl looked around, until she found the most hidden table. She sat down, facing a wall at a corner table.

_ “Finally,”  _ She said as she sat down.  _ “I can enjoy my drink alone.” _ Fira began to reach behind her makes to undo the straps, but before she could grab them, Clarrence came back and sat across from her. She groaned, this time out loud.

““What do you-“ “How did you do your hair?! I’ve never seen anything like it! Do you have a stylist?” Fira was taken aback by the squids excitement   _ “That’s what he wants to know? He followed me around because of my tentacles!? Huh, I’m flattered”  _ The girl gave a small smile, but she made sure for Clarrence not to notice.

“Not exactly a stylist…” She began as Fira pulled it up front for him to see. “Though if anyone needs one, it’s you.” She pointed to the bow on the back of Clarrences head as she saw it was very loose, and poorly made. She chuckled through her painters mask, as Clarrence shrunk into his seat.

 

Honey and Duncan were both hiding, trying to stay out of sight as the blue tentacle girl and the green tentacle boy ran past them. Honey could over here them as they ran past, and she heard their names were Kiki and Quincy. 

Honey popped out of hiding from behind an arcade cabinet. “Coast is clear my dude,” she whispered to her friend. Duncan popped out from a trash can, gasping for air. He quickly got out, wiping the tarsh off of him. “What was that for!?” He sounded very upset.

“Well, I had to hide you quickly, so the trash can was the closest place.” Duncan simply groaned, he didn’t feel like arguing at the moment. “Why are you still holding onto the fry?” he questioned. Honey looked at the long fry in her hands, the gave a devilish grin back to Duncan. “Oh, I just plan to hold onto it for as long as I can, and when I feel like giving it back to them, it will be cold and hard, and instead of being a tasty long fry it will...well you get the point.”

Duncan was surprised, “wow, you really are evil.” “Am I?” the prankster questioned as she gave a sly smile. Duncan gave a small chuckle, he couldn’t lie, she was really good at her art.

“So now what?” he questioned. “We can’t keep running in circles forever.” Honey had to admit the boy was right, they needed to spice up the chase. “Hmmm,” she pondered to herself. Until her head shot up. “There’s only one place we haven't been to yet,” Honey said devilishly. Duncan looked confused at his friend. “Honey, please, I haven't-” he was interrupted by Honey grabbing the boy’s orange sleeve. 

“Oh come on, have a little excitement in your life D-Can!” The nervous boy smiled, she did have a point, while constantly being on the run was no fun, he could feel the energy she was talking about. At first he wasn’t sure, but after Honey’s encourage, he was confident now.

He  pulled out of Honey’s arm and ran in front of her. “Wait wait.” He said, trying to stop Honey. The girl skidded to a stop, not wanting to hit her friend. “I have a better idea involving skates.” it took a moment, but Honey grinned, “I’m listening.” She was intrigued. 

The two ran around, until they found a side closet that read “Employees only”. Honey chuckled, “look at Duncan, breaking the rules.” Duncan laughed and scratched the back of his head, laughing awkwardly at himself. ‘Sh-shut up, come on.” 

The duo headed into the room, and it was a small closet, full of all different kinds of stuff. Duncan searched the shelves. For some reason, he felt embarrassed. He wasn’t sure why, but he could feel his face burning up. Until he found what he was looking for.

Duncan pulled out an old disco ball, and some rope. Honey smiled devilishly, “ahhh, I see where you’re going.” she laughed quietly, and Duncan did the same. The boy felt odd, his head began to ache, and his stomach churned. He wasn’t sure why, but he thought it had something to do with the girl.

“It’s a good plan Duncan, but we are gonna need some bait,” Honey said, as she rubbed her hands together. Duncan immediately knew what Honey had in mind, and he didn't like it.

 

_ Story to resume in Side B! _


	16. The Blue Tentacle Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: This chapter contains a lot of preeeeeeetty emotional depression. Don't read if you are easily disturbed by depression. It's your choice as a reader to continue or not.

**Monday, 5.**

Today was the day of our first league match. We played against Splat Bombers. I was so nervous, I couldn’t even hold my slosher for the first few minutes. I could feel the sweat forming as we waited on the spawn pad. Lex was giving her usual speech. SHe talked about how that how hard we trained and what to do on the this stage (Starfish Mainstage). I didn’t hear what she told Ripley and Grey, I was just nervous if I was gonna screw up again. When she did get to me, she put both arms on my shoulders, and told me to take a deep breath, and focus on what’s going on around me. I gulped and nodded.

When the battle started, the alarm scarred me and I panicked, and quickly began to slosh around, which I guess was good, because Lex gave me a thumbs up. I shook the feeling, and went back to my job. I covered the area around our spawn. I looked up across the area and saw Ripley doing the same. The short kid gave me a confident, and even egotistic smile. I smiled the best I could, but I could tell it didn’t feel right.

I continued to slosh and my tentacles lit up, and right then, I heard Lex ask if me and Rip were ready. I gave an “mmhmm” and she said “now”. I pulled out my tenta missiles and fired them.

I don’t know why I’m depicting the battle bit by bit. It’s not necessary at all. At this rate, I’ll need a new diary before the next school year. Ehehe, I’ll skip to the end.

We won, yay, but I don’t feel excited as the rest of the team. I’m happy, for sure, but I’m not jumping up and down and shouting. I feel bad, I feel I should be jumping and cheering with them. Instead, I just feel…. Contempt, but not real joy. I’ll figure it out later.

 

**Tuesday, 6.**

Lex had us train again. It was mostly her and one on ones with everyone. Ripley’s Splattling was broken, so it was me and Grey. She had us do a 1v1. Why Lex? Of all thinks you made me do, a 1v1? The best I can say it’s not against Rip, he would completely out range me. We had our training spot at Mussle Forge Fitness. I started in my spawn. I went fast. I got to the center, and Grey quickly got me. I could have dodged it, but i was too scarred, and I tried to hide behind my bucket.  That’s all that happened, we went back to our usual hangout spot in the plaza. Rip left, he left to go get his splattling fixed. The three of us talked about training and what we were gonna do against our next team Ink Tide. Lex talked to me first. She told me that if we went to the reef, stay back, but flank if I need to. If it was Humpback Pumptrack, I need to focus the center of the map if we gain control. When she went onto Grey, my mind was buzzing. There I go again, still being in the back, holding the point. I never get spalts, and when I do, it’s completely unfair for them. I sighed, but the other two didn’t notice.

 

I woke up in the middle of the night. I had another dream. I was on a mountain, with people wearing stranges masks all stared at me from below. I was trying to stay balanced, until the masked people began to throw things at me. It started with small rocks, and then I was hit in the head with a bucket, and i fell off the mountain. Right before I hit the ground, I woke up. I don’t understand my dreams, there is always someone in a mask. They are sometimes hidden, but I always see at least one. I don’t know what it means.

 

**Wednesday 7.**

Today was our second battle against a team called Ink Tide. I knew almost no one on the team, besides Beca. It was a very awkward battle, for me at least. It seemed like everyone was really ok with one another. I thought battles were to fight against others for glory, not to fight against friends. The only thing that really happened was that I accidentally overheard Ripley and Beca talking to each other. I learned this morning that Beca and Rip were dating. I accidentally saw him texting her, and he caught me. I was so embarrassed, but he said not to tell Lex yet. I was confused, but I didn’t question it. Why did he want to keep it a secret from Lex? I don’t understand. Maybe Lex is strict on dating after the break up with Gil. Oh well.

Anyways, I completely forgot about it, and Beca had a roller, so I thought she was going to attack him. I tossed a suction bomb behind Rip, and she didn’t see, so she got splatted. At first, I thought I did something good, but Rip turned to me with a shocked look on his face. I knew I screwed up again. I was about to cry. I tried to explain myself, but all I could do was stutter. Rip said it was ok, but I’m not sure if he is. Why do I keep screwing things like this up.?

The rest of the day went just as bad. We lost the battle (probably because of me). I  went home, and my sister wasn’t there. Dad says she had an ear infection, and left right before I got home. I went up to my room and spent the rest of the day there. I layed on my bed, listened to some Bottom Feeders, and fell asleep, trying not to cry.

 

**Thursday, 8.**

I woke up feeling very sick. I told Lex I couldn’t make it to practice today. She said not to worry, but I still felt bad. My sister (her name is Liana) came home today. She definitely acted like she was ok. She came to see if I was doing ok. She’s so sweet, and full of energy, I’d hate to see her lose that. My mom came if shortly after. She gave me a bottle of fizzy fruit punch. My favorite! She told me how Dad told her that I was sick, and she picked me up a some groceries for me, like some soup.My sister showed me a sticker she got from the hospital, it was a little squid, with pink and green ink splotches. She is so adorable.

Later that day, Lex and Grey showed up to see me. Rip didn’t come, probably because I splatted Beca yesterday. Lex brought me soup, saying my mom asked to bring it to me. Lex said she came to check on me., and Grey wanted to tag along. I didn’t want to ask about Ripley. We chatted for a while, who knew Lex was so talkative. She always seemed like the stern mother, who was concerned only with making sure we did good. It was nice. Grey was excited as my sister, it took me awhile to realize it. He’s young, and full of energy, I wish that was me. 

They left by evening, and I was on my phone until I went to sleep, finishing the last of my fizzy fruit punch.

 

**Saturday, 10.**

I couldn’t write yesterday, I was very busy. My parents and I were getting the final things ready for Liana’s 14th B-day. My parents got her a splattershot Jr., and I got her this tee shirt I think she’ll like. After that, not much happened, I layed around in my room again. At least I was feeling better. Yesterday also Grey got us this new summer job for Grizzco. He didn’t know how Shady it is, but we still forgave him. He felt very bad about it. I hope I said the right things, he still seemed mad at himself. The job was actually kinda fun. We had to fight these little slamonids and collect eggs. I did feel bad for them, but they tried to get my friends, and I wouldn’t let that happen! Even though we had a crew wipe. Hehe…..

Today Lex mentioned that we were gonna have practice tomorrow before our next match on Monday against some team called “Ink Blink” I’ve heard of the captain, Bayley, but no one else. All we did today was plan. She said we would be playing at a new place called “Shellendorf Institute.” She talked about this big top platform that was uninkable, so inkstorm and tenta missiles wouldn’t be effective for covering turf, or attacking others on the bottom. Great, I’m being worthless again. I don’t understand why Lex keeps me around. I never fight back, most of the time I get scarred and take the hit. Even though I somehow made it to A-, I don’t understand...Oh well, I’ll get kicked eventually, I’ll probably freeze up again and everyone will hate me. Just like last time….

 

**Sunday, 11.**

Me, Grey and Ripely were in for a surprise today. Instead of regular training, Lex said we would be playing a scrimmage game against a team called “Crash Course”. Apparently, the captain was a good friend of Lex’s, long before she formed Splash Cloud.

The members of Crash Course seem super nice. The captain (Machinko) was very energetic, and extremely happy to see Lex. When she hugged her, Lex almost looked as if she was choking. I felt mad. Then there was a boy named Quincy, he looked as skittish as….me….I just realized that…

Then there was a girl named Kiki, her spunk made me uneasy, and a little scarred. There was another boy, with pink tentacles, but for the life of me, I can’t remember his name. I’m terrible with names. It took me a month to finally remember Lex’s name. I think I’ve been getting better, I can’t tell...

The battle didn’t go well at all. Crash Course took control before we could, and the kid with the pink tentacles quickly splatted me. I couldn’t help beat myself up for letting him do that, I could have fought back, or swam away, or anything! But I just sat there and screamed in fear. I’m so stupid.

At the end, I splatted Quincy, but it didn’t do much because we still lost. I felt like crying again. Kiki tried to cheer me up, but I was so startled, I couldn’t find my words. She laughed at me for my stumbling, ugh! I can’t do anything! 

When I got home, it was late, so I jumped into my bed and cried myself to sleep.

 

**Monday, 12.**

We had another early morning battle, this was the Ink Blink battle I mentioned a few days ago. I felt lousy, and I didn’t want to go after what happened yesterday.

I was woken up by Lex, of all people, who told me that I slept in. I panicked, and apologized, she giggled, and said everything was ok, and there was still plenty of time. The two of us ran to the battle tower, where the rest of the team and Ink Blink were waiting. I met the rest of Ink Blink. I knew about Bayley, we go to the same school. Then there was Yuna, she reminded me of Fira, with the same painter’s mask. But instead of looking fierce, she just looked tired. There was Nettie, who was almost as short as Rip, but still taller. She looked as bouncy as Grey. Finally was Blake, who was Bayley’s twin brother. I honestly didn’t know Bayley had a twin.

The battle went better than expected, at least for me. We were able to take control first thing, but I got sniped by Bayley and her Goo Tuber. Lex said that after I got splatted, Ink Blink tried to invade, but Rip and Lex were able to hold them off from the top platform. 

They tried to advance heavily with specials on us. Lex was splatted first, and then Lex, which scarred me, as I knew I couldn’t do it myself. I saw Grey up ahead, as he did as surprise attack on Blake, who was about to go after me. Grey saw me, and gave me a confident smile. He tried to encourage me quickly, and somehow, it worked. I was able to chase and splat Nettie, who was even using inkjet. That made me feel good!

We were able to hold off Ink Blink and win! I felt really happy! And I actually felt I did something right. I even cheered louder than normal, which made the other three look at me, I felt embarrassed, but then the all hugged me, I felt warm, it was a nice feeling.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, going to shops, I got a little pin for my hat, a little Bottom Feeders pin. Rip saw me get it and said that he didn’t know I liked Bottom Feeders. I didn’t want to tell him, but i didn’t want to lie. Rip chuckled to himself, and I was worried he was laughing at me, but then he said, “That’s it?  That’s the big reveal? I thought you would have said something worse the way you stuttered.” He also said “I don’t care what you like, something liek this is pretty normal, be proud you're a fan!” He then left me be to buy it. I smiled. He was right, I should be a proud. It just may take some time.

I put the pin in my hat, and I knew it was a good day.

 

**Tuesday, 13.**

Today was my Liana’s 14th B-day! I’m so happy for her! She can finally join the turf wars! She’s been waiting her whole life for this day, she’s always asking about matches ever since I turned 14. (I’m 17 now while writing this). Liana said she didn’t want a birthday party, but instead wanted to go out and play some turf with me. First, we gave her her gifts, I gave her this cute pink tee, she loved it very much, and have me a hug. She was so adorable.

I wanted to take her to my favorite place for turf war, and luckily, it was open for rotation. Port Mackerel. Something about that place makes me relaxed. I gave Liana a little bit of training before we headed out. I pretty much was with her the whole game, keeping her safe. I tried my best to make sure she didn’t get splatted. It was a fun game, seeing the smile on her face, and the enjoyment she gets makes it all worth it. 

The best part, we won! I’m so happy for her! The rest of the day was turf wars. It was almost like if it was my birthday.

 

**Wednesday, 14.**

I guess all good things come to an end. Today was a splatfest day. It didn’t go very well. Ripley got mad at us for not all choosing the same team, which made me feel bad for him, but  already chose team invisibility, so there was nothing I can do.

This time it was Lex and I. I did horrible, all I did was I got splatted, respawned, repeat. I was so angry with myself. Eventually I couldn’t take it and sat down, feeling like I was going to throw up. Lex found me and tried to comfort me, I finally gave in and began to tell her how I felt, that I shouldn’t have been on the team. Lex sa with me. She didn’t finish the game. The two of us sat on top of the tower. It was a very pretty night, but I still felt….bad….

 

**Thursday, 15.**

Today we had another battle, against a team called Tidal Wave. Never heard of them. We were at a Arowanna Mall, since it just opened up for Turf Wars again.

The game went bad. I was destroyed by the Hydra splatling, and so was most of our team. I was completely worthless, I had the lowest score, most splatted, and no splats. By the time he did get splatted, it was too late. I don’t know how my Tenta missiles hit. Maybe it was a mistake and Rip’s sting ray got him. I’m so frustrated! I can’t do it! I sometimes wish I never agreed to Rip’s offer, and I could never disappoint anyone! I’m just done! Why do I keep coming to these things. 

After the battle, I left early, saying I had stomach ache. I couldn’t handle it. I’m just worthless. I can barely even stay stable enough to keep doing this. I should just quit. I’m only bringing my team down, and it’s all my fault. I just cry every game, even when we win. I can’t take it. Tomorrow there’s a music festival. A bunch of bands are gonna be there, sadly Bottom Feeders are across the country being on tour. This trip will probably end in tears as well. I’m gonna cry myself to sleep again. I already threw up at home. All I can hope for is to see the Chirpy Chips, but that will never happen, the world hates me. Good Night diary.

  
  
  



End file.
